Gekkou
by Chirakka
Summary: -COMPLETE- OC'S GALORE! Ahem... I wasn't planning to finish, but as you can see I eventually did. Main char is Gekkou Rikou, Hayate's sister. I really don't care anymore, so flame all ya want 0.o
1. Default Chapter

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the characters, concepts, names and related indicia. They are copyright (c) Masashi Kishimoto. I still don't get the point of those disclaimer things._

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Rikou fiddled anxiously with her pencil as the examiner for the first part of the chuunin exam explained what was expected of the group of gennin for the written test. She was zoned out almost completely, vaguely hearing a few word such as 'cheating' and 'begin with ten points,' but they didn't register.

This was her second chuunin exam, her second year as a gennin, possibly one of the best, but the other members on her team were stronger than her, she guessed. In front of her and to the left sat Hikari Ken, in his ever-present white trenchcoat. He was thirteen, like her, and specialized in genjutsu. He had silvery hair that he kept loosely tied back in a ponytail.

In her same row and to her right sat their team leader, and most powerful by far, Unkai Kirema, an elite gennin at the age of fourteen. He wore a light blue trenchcoat with dark blue flames licking up from the bottom edge, and had shocking blue hair. He was strong in every aspect of ninpou, but preferred taijutsu and always carried a pair of nekotes in his trenchcoat pocket, hidden away just in case.

Rikou was the youngest on her team, a few months younger than Ken having been born in November, and was either weaker or equally matched in power with him. To match her team-mates style, she also wore a long black trenchcoat to match her short black hair. Everything about her seemed quiet and dark, her hair, clothing, even her weapons, but some colour was brought into her life by the fact that her eyes were shocking turquiose-green, almost like twin jewels. Together, her, Ken and Kirema made up team two along with their Jounin-sensei, Kanzu.

Her mind sanpped back to reality as the examiner, Ibiki, answere one of the last questions and said "Begin!"

She flipped over her paper, scanning the questions quickly, pausing on the last question, question ten. 'Wait for the examiner to give you the question in fourty-five minutes.' I wonder what that's supposed to mean, she thought, moving back up to question one.

The questions were fairly hard, problem solving, cryptograms, math problems, all at about a jounin level, but Rikou was not stupid. In fact, she was quite smart. Very smart. By the ten minute mark, she was already half-way through the exam.

Her pencil moved quickly across the page as she leaned forwards, hiding her answers from anyone who might be cheating off her paper. After completing question nine, she quickly scanned the page a few times to check for mistakes, before flipping it over, face down on the table.

A few heads turned towards her as she did this, and she looked up at the shocked expressions of some of the closer genning. Looking up at the clack, she saw why. It was only twenty minutes into the test. I suppose that means I'll have to sit around and do nothing for twnty-five minutes then, she thought, placing her hands in her lap and sitting perfectly still.

She watched silently as more and more gennin were rooted out for cheating, some yelling at the examiners or arguing against them. The numbers being removed were slowly growing as the clock reched the thirty-minute mark. One of the boys in front of her looked like he was having a mental breakdown, grabbing his hair and banging his head on the table. She recognized him as Naruto, one of the first-year gennins.

Ten minutes to go, she thought, looking back up at the clock. Looking back towards Ken, she saw him glance back at her and grin, he had finished the test. She looked over to Kirema, who was already leaning back casually with his paper flipped over. Good, she thought, sighing and resting her chin on her arms on top of the table. At least we'll pass the first part this year.

"Times up," called the examiner. "Put down your pencils and get ready for question ten."

There was an overall rusling as gennin either dropped their pencils, or hurried to try to finish a last question. Rikou lifted her head slightly to look up at the examiner, who was standing at the front of the room again.

"Now," began th examiner, " I'm going to warn you beforehand about the tenth question. If you choose not to answer it, you will fail the exam, but you will be able to participate in the next chuunin exam. However, should you choose to answer the question and get it wrong, you wil never be allowed to participate in a chuunin exam ever again. So basically, if you choose to answer and answer incorrectly, you will remain a gennin forever."

Rikou paused, thinking. Can they really do that? I mean, it's just a question... She looked back to the front of the room as another group of gennins left. She looked up at the examiner's face, he was a special jounin in charge of torture and interrogations. Tortue and interrogations... She glanced at him again, her mind working hard as she came to a conclusion. She had briefly been councilled by him after she had been rescued from torture, but had to be taken to a more experienced torture specialist to help her deal with the mental trauma of toture, and she remebered him using something like this to build her confidence. He's bluffing. He must specialize in mental torture and mind games to extract information. That won't work on me, I was stuck in a torture room for an entire year. I've already overcome those types of tricks.

She looked down at Ken, who was looking at Kirema. She glanced over at Kirema, who shrugged at Ken and turned to her, making to raise his hand. She shook her head, making a small hand signal that told him to stop. He stared at her in confusion for a moment, before leaning back casually, not caring. In front of her, Naruto stood slowly, raising his hand. But it wasn't to forfeit, it was to point at the examiner. What is this guy doing? She thought, fiddling with her pencil in silence. Which was broken a few seconds later by the loud blonde.

"I don't care what the consequences are! If I don't do this, then I'll never get to be Hokage! Just hurry up and give us the question!" He yelled at the examiner. Rikou's first thoughts were, he's going to be disqualified and kicked out, but she was mildly suprised when the rest of the gennin that had been about to forfeit lowered their hands, looking up at Naruto.

"If I can't answer this question now, then that means that I don't have it in me to be the best! So just give me the question!"

Geez, this guy is so loud, she thought, putting her pencil back on the desk. Anyone who had thought of leaving before had their spirits raised by the boy's loud speech, and had decided to stay. The examiner smiled, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Well, then..." he said, smiling up at the remaining gennin. "Congradulations on passing the first part of the exam."

There was a moment of stunned silence, before Naruto burst out again. "What? What about the question, huh?"

Ibiki smiled again. "There was no question. Sometimes, a shinobi is forced to make sacrifices, stepping into the unknown in order to fufil a mission. You have to learn to take chances in life, otherwise you'll get nowhere.

"But this test was not only for testing your decision making, but for your information gathering as well. In reality, getting caught while gathering information is not an option. This," Ibiki lifted his hat up slightly, before removing it completely. This is what happens if you get caught. The enemy will torture information out of you."

On his bald scap were several burn marks, scars, and circles where screws had appereently been drivin into his skull after some peiod of torture. That's nothing, thought Rikou. The marks that she bore from years of torure burned across her back, chest, neck and arms at the sight of Ibiki's own scars and she shifted uncomfortably.

"I was fortunate enough to be experienced with torture before I recieved these for being caught. Others are not. Even now, there is one in this room who I know has already experienced a year of torture every day at the age of twelve. She was not so fortunate, but she managed to survive it."

She shifted uncomfortably as she felt the eyes of Ken and Kirema fall upon her when Ibiki described her. Her team mates knew of what had happened, but they had never seen the marks or heard in detail of what had really happened. All they knew was that her last team had been killed and she was captured on what was supposed to have been a C ranked mission, she had been 'questioned' for a year, and then the sand had found her and brought her back to Konoha.

Remembering this caused her to glance in the direction of her rescuer as Ibiki went on about the test. Kankuro had insisted to his team mates that they let him save her before continuing back to the Sand. His brother, who scared her completely, had been in a good mood and said nothing of it, and his sister, Temari, had agreed to help him as long as it didn't take too long.

At the time, she had not been wearing her forehead protector, and so, not knowing which village she had come from since she had passed out, they had brought her back to the Sand to revive her. She eventually remembered her Village, and Kankuro had escorted her back.

Over that period of time, she had become good friends with the Sand-nin, and by now they were fairly close to eachother. He would write to her often, and she was glad he had been selected to participate in this year's exam. She hadn't actually spoken to him for two a year now.

She tore her gaze away from Kankuro as she heard glass shattering and turned her eyes towards one of the windows just as a brown and black blur spun into view, landing gracefully at the front of the room.

A moment later, she saw a jounin kunoichi standing in front of a large black banner that read 'Chuunin Exam: Part 2- Forest of Death!" with three exclaimation marks after it. Before she could figure out what was going on, the kunoichi began speaking.

"What is this? Aren't you done the exam? Why are there so many left?"

Ibiki closed his eyes for a moment before answering. "There were many outstanding ones this time," he said calmly. The second examiner sighed and turned back to the remaining gennin.

"My name is Mitarishi Anko and I am the examiner for the second part of the chuunin exam! Don't worry, by the time I'm done with you, I'll have cut your numbers in half. Follow me!"

There was an overal rustling as the gennin stood. Rikou sat for a moment, allowing the large crowd to dissapate slightly more before standing herself. We don't even get a break between the first and secon parts? That's cruel, she thought, pocketing the pencil. As she slowly stood, she headr a sof jingling. Inside of her trenchcoat, she carried two sickle-shaped weapons called kama's which were attatched to eachother by a length of long chain that she kept wrapped loosely around her body.

"That was easy. I thought the exam was supposed to be difficult," said Ken, falling into step beside her. Kirema joined them, cutting in between her and Ken and taking his usual position in the center.

"Yeah, and did you see that guy's scars? It didn't look like he had a fun time with those," he said as they walked outside and followed the group of gennin towards the Forest of Death. Rikou rubbed her left arm absent-mindedly, all of this talk about torture causing her scars to burn again.

"I wonder what the next part is going to be," she said quietly. The three gennin walked in silence the rest of the way, their trenchcoats blown back slightly in the almost noexistant breeze. The gates of the Forest of Death loomed up before them, their tops lined with barbed wire, making it look like a prison.

Their team was the last to arrive, joining the crowd of gennin at the back. Rikou couln't see or hear anything, being the shortest on her team, and she guessed neither could Ken. Kirema craned his neck in order to look over a particularly tall gennin from the Rain in front of him.

"I can't see a thing," whispered Rikou to Ken, standing on her tip toes, which didn't help in the least.

"Me neither. Hey, Kirema, we can't see, so you'll have to tell us when she's done talking," he said, leaning back against a tree.

"Fine," said Kirema, still shifting to find the best place to view Anko from.

Rikou leaned back against the tree as well, sliding to the ground and moving into a sitting position as she surveyed the other gennin teams.

There were gennin from the Sound, a new country, the Grass, the Rain, and one team from the Sand. She spotted Kanuro off on the other side of the crow and stood.

"I'll be right back," she said quietly to Ken, leaving before he could warn her about anything. She carefully picked her way around the perimeter of the crowd, avoiding touching any of the other gennin in case she might anger them in any way.

As she neared the Sand gennin, she accidently bumped one of the Sounds, and he spun around, glaring at her.

"What the hell is your problem, bitch?" He hissed, pulling out a kunai and grabbing her arm.

But before she could fight back, a black blur came between her and the Sound-nin, forcing him to release her wrist.

"Watch it, asshole," hissed Kankuro. Rikou smiled slightly as the Sound-nin scowled and turned back to the examiner. Kankuro turned around, facing her and smiling slightly, closing his eyes.

"Be careful, these guys don't care if they get into trouble, they'll hurt you just for fun," he said.

"Kankuro! I haven't seen you for so long. So you're here with Temari and Gaara?"

Kankuro shifted slightly, as if he was trying to hide something. "Yeah, unfortunately. I'm glad I can see you again. How's your new team?"

Rikou turned her head back towards where Ken and Kirema were. "They're alright, I guess. I wish I could just stay with you in the Sand though. But I think there's too much sun there, I'd get sick all the time."

The atmosphere of the crowd suddenly changed as talking broke out among the gennin. The examiner had apperently ceased talking and the group began to move to the side. She heard someone call her name, sounding like Kirema.

"I should go," she whispered. Kankuro reached forward and pulled her into a hug, kissing her neck once before she turned and left, waving goodbye.

She made her way against the flow of gennin, managing to avoid touching anyone and making her way back to Kirema. She silently followed them along with the other gennin to the left.

"What are we doing?" she asked Kirema.

"Basically, we have three days to get to the center of the forest. We are going to be givin a scroll, either heaven or earth scroll, and we have to steal to opposite from another group. We can only pass if we make it to the center with both scrolls and all team members."

Rikou turned her green eyes towards him. "'With all team members'?"

Kirema nodded. "There will be deaths in this part of the exam."

"What? Ah..." Rikou let her gaze drop. This would mean pain, the one thing she feared completely. She had a very low pain threshold after being tortured. She was scared, she didn't want to feel that again.

They entered a cloth-covered booth where two jounin sat with sheets of paper in front of them and a pile of scrolls. They gave each of them a piece of paper, and Rikou scanned it. It was a contract that said if she signed, they would not be responsible for death. She swallowed hard and sighed her name at the bottom in her small, neat handwriting, Gekkou Rikou.

A moment later, a scroll was shoved in her face. She took it, reading the outside which read 'Heaven' and placed it on the inside of her black trenchcoat, following the other two out the door and back into the sunlight.

"We're at gate four," stated Kirema, moving to the left, towards their gate. A jounin guard stood at the gate, waiting for them. There was a fifteen-minute waiting period as the teams moved to thier gates, and team two, her team, used it to ready themselves.

Rikou reached inside her trenchcoat and pulled out one of her kama's, pulling hard and letting the long chain slide out with the other kama attatched to that end. She slung it across her shoulders, loosely wrapping it around her arms.

Kirema plunged a hand into either of his pockets, which was followed by a slight jingling before his hand re-emerged, armed with his pair of nekotes glinting in the sun.

Ken reached inside his trenchcoat, untying something before removing a sheathed katana from around his waist. He sluung the straps over his right shoulder, strapping the sword across his back and checking it's condition by momentarily unsheathing it and examining the blade.

A moment later, a faroff whistle blew and the jounin guarding their gate unlocked it, opening the chain-link fence. Rikou hurried in after her two team mates.


	2. 2

"No, we should just concentrate on getting to the tower. I don't want to get ino any battles around here, just stay around the tower and ambush someone ther," said Rikou, trying to talk her companions out of their own plans.

"I don't know... I think we should go after the weakest team. That would probably be team ten," said Ken, across a clearing beside her. Kirema was silent, trying to think up a plan.

"I think Rikou is right. If we hang around the tower and lay a whole bunch of traps, we're bound to catch something," said Kirema.

Rikou followed them along, keeping pace for awhile as they travelled towards the tower, but she soon began to slow. The sun was beginning to get to her; she could only spend about five or six hours in it per day before she began to feel sick.

She slowed down more and more as she began struggling for breath. It was the only type of pain she could deal with, since she had been stuck with it her entire life, but it was still devastating. It slowed down her heartbeat and her lungs, not allowing any oxygen to travel to her muscles, sometimes causing her to pass out.

"I have to rest," she breathed out, her chains jingling slightly as she collapsed on the spot, brushing her short black hair from her green eyes as she move over slightly, into the shade of a nearby tree.

Ken and Kirema were used to this, she just needed a few minutes to regain control over her lungs. She leaned against the tree, closing her eyes and letting her shoulders slump down as she took a few deep breaths.

Rikou heard a twig snap to her left, and was instantly alert, her pain momentarily forgotten as she jumped up and readied her kamas.

"What's there?" asked Kirema, looking into the bushes.

Rikou remained silent, glaring into the underbrush as she searched for the source of the sudden noise and finding nothing. A moment later, she heard a soft whistling, and spun around just in time to avoid being hit in the back with a pair of shuriken. There were a few things she was good at in battle, or more likely to avoid it, and those were being extremely difficult to hit, running away, and stealing.

Looking into the branches, the three Leaf-nin saw three other gennin, each with their weapons readied as they looked down upon them.

"Shit..." muttered Kirema, setting his fighting stance. Ken drew his katana.

"Give us the scroll and we'll let you walk away from this, Leaf-nin," shouted the leader, glaring down at them. He carried a long staff with a sharp, curved blade on one end.

"Yeah, right," said Ken. In one movement, he threw three exploding notes at the Rain-nin before jumping up beside them and starting the battle, clashing swords with another. The one to the left dropped from th branch and ran straight at Rikou, spinning a chigiriki, a metal pole with a spiked ball and a chain attatched to one end, and slashing down at her.

She jumped backwards, causing him to miss by about three feet as the spiked ball buried itself a few inches into the dirt. _That's enough force to kill_, she thought, jumping and sending out her left kama, ripping open the enemy's sleeve, but not drawing blood. He spun his chigiriki at her and she spun her kama at it, tangling the two weapons up for a moment before releasing her end and sending the kama into his shoulder, untangling the chains at the same time. She pulled it out and dashed behind a tree, springing into the branches and hiding, another thing she was good at.

Her enemy lay panting on the ground, a deep gash in his shoulder where he had been hit by her. Ken and Kirema were still fighting as well, but she had had enough. She was staying here.

"Where the hell did Rikou run off to again!? She always does this!" shouted Kirema, narrowly avoiding the tip of the enemy's spear as it slashed inches from his left eye.

"Damnit, we can't fight three on two. And we don't have the time for this. Let's get out of here."

Kirema managed to elbow the Rain-nin in the stomach before taking to the trees, followed by Ken as they ran away. Rikou slumped down and caught her breath, still hiding. _Too much sun_, she thought, regaining her breath in a few moments. The Rain-nin were hunched over the one she had fought as he sat in a small puddle of blood. She stood and flanked the small clearing, heading after her team-mates.

After taking a few breaks, she found them at the edge of a stream, each sipping the cold water from small containers. She caught her breath for a moment before stepping from the trees. The reaction from Kirema was not good.

"Why the hell did you run off again, Rikou!? We're supposed to work as a team, which means you fight as long as we do!"

She dug in her trenchcoat wordlessly, producing two scrolls.

"Sorry... But I stole the Earth scroll from him before I injured him and ran."

She handed the shocked Leaf-nin the two scrolls, ending the conversation with silence. She remained standing for a moment before sitting a few feet off on one of the larger stones by the stream. She pulled out her kamas and gently dipped one in the water, washing off the blood and letting it float downstream. She pulled it back out and wiped it on her black trenchcoat, replacing it inside.

"Where are we going to camp? The sun's beginning to set," asked Rikou, looking over at her leader.

"We should split up and look around a bit," he replied, standing. He removed a kunai from his weapons pouch and threw it into the ground, wedging it between two stones. "Meet back here in fifteen minutes."

Rikou was left behind as the two boys vanished, Ken taking the left, back into the forest, and Kirema heading out across the stream. She stood and took off behind her, following the path of the stream for awhile before entering the forest again.

There was the sound of voices, and Rikou quickly hid in the bushes, looking out into a small clearing. There were two groups of gennin facing eachother, negotiating. One was a group of Rain-nin, the other was the three Sand gennin.

The leader of the Sand, Gaara, seemed to want to kill the Rains, and she noticed Temari and Kankuro trying to talk him out of it. Too late.

A moment later, Rikou had to cover her mouth in shock as sand reached up from the ground, completely covering the Rains, cutting off their screams instantly before compressing and killing them, sending droplets of blood flying everywhere.

_Poor Kankuro and Temari, _she thought, dropping her hand. _They have to stick around with that sand freak. He scares me, I wouldn't want to fight him._

To avoid being found out by Gaara, Rikou quickly slipped away, back to her search. The sun was getting lower in the sky, and she only had five minutes left. She returned to the stream bed, scanning the edges carefully for a good campsite, but finding none.

Just as she was about to turn back, she heard the wind whistling through something a little ways off, creating a hollow moan. Turning back to the edge of the forest, she went through it again, looking more carefully and finally finding what she was looking for.

The opening was covered in vines, and the hole itself was wuite wide, going deep into the roots of the large tree. She carefully brushed aside the vines, looking into the dimly lit cavern, which was actually very roomy and had several holes in the roots that allowed the remaining sunlight to filter in. Crawling in further, she felt the temperature drop as she looked around curiously.

There were no cobwebs or insects crawiling around in the dirt floor, and it didn't seem to be used by any other creatures as all of the openings were well hidden and thoroughly grown over with vines, roots and weeds. The dirt floor was covered in leaves and twigs that must have been blown in awhile ago, as they were all dry and dead. It was perfect.

But she was late now, by almost five minutes, so she hurried out again, crawling back into the hot, summers air and heading back to the meeting place as fast as she could.

When she reached it, she found Ken and Kirema already waiting patiently for her, Kirema looking annoyed again. She quickly appologized for her lateness and joined them.

"Alright, I found a small hidden clearing further back into the woods, it's surrounded by trees and on slightly higher ground, so it will give us a good lookout point. There wasn't any other gennins there, so I suppose it hasn't been found yet," reported Kirema, turning to Ken.

"Well, there wasn't many choices. There were many clearings, but they were fairly easy to access. The only better place was in the middle of a thick stand of trees, but we'd need to climb to get there. In the middle of the stand was a place where a bunch of dead branches had collected, forming a large platform that was pretty stable," said Ken. They both shifted to look at her.

"Umm... I found a cave. Its dry, almost impossible to see, and well protected. And the inside is large, the walls allow a little light in as well."

Kirema sat silently for a moment, going over the choices. "I suppose we should look at the cave first, it seems like the most hidden."

Rikou nodded, standing silently and leading them back to where she had found the cave. The sun was halfway down now, but it was still affecting her, and she began to struggle for breath again.

After poking around for awhile, looking for the cavern, she finally found the large tree and pulled away the thick vines covering the entrance, letting the other two enter first before climbing in after them. She leaned up against one of the walls and caught her breath, coughing lightly as the other two looked around.

After a moment of hushed speaking, they decided to stay here for the night. The two boys removed thire trenchcoats and lay them on the ground, before laying on top and pulling them over as a blanket. Rikou remained sitting against the wall, not removing her trenchcoat.

"Hey, Rikou, why don't you ever take your coat off?" asked Ken quietly. Rikou lifted her head slightly.

"I'm always cold, I have bad cirrculation. And anyways, you wouldn't want to see what my arms look like."

Ken looked at her for a moment longer before rolling back over and drifting off to sleep. A few seconds later, the light in the caver completely vanished as the sun set fully, leaving her in the darkness.

Before she drifted off to sleep, she reached into her pocket and withdrew a small container full of pills. She had forgotten to take her medicine earlier, so she would just have to take it now. Removing one of the white pills, she popped it into her mouth and swallowed, replacing the lid to the container and placing it back in her pocket.

A few moments later, she felt her eyes slowly close and her mind slip away as she drifted off to sleep, still sitting up against the wall.

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Rikou woke early the next morning, the sun had not yet risin, and she shivered slightly, opening her eyes in the pitch black. She rarely got a full night's sleep, and this time was no different. It was not unusual for her to wake up at midnight, but she guessed it to be around three or four in the morning.

She sat for a moment, breathing easily thanks to her medicine, before crawling carefully towards the entrance out into the cold morning. The air was even sharper outside than inside the cavern, but she wasn't tired and did not feel like going back to sleep.

Her stomach growled loudly as she stretched, looking up at the slowly lightening sky. She hadn't eaten in two days now, but she didn't want to complain to Kirema, it showed weakness. She flopped down against the tree, taking a deep breath. She had had another nightmare, the same one again. Almost every night, she relived the year of torture, and no matter what she did, the nightmares still came.

This time, she had dreamt of the wort man who often came to torture her. He was a memeber of an organization called the Akatsuki, and it was almost as if he were only on this earth to torture. He had the strangest eyes, blood red, with black designs on it. If she looked into his eyes, which she had often been forced to do, it felt as if she were being stabbed with katanas for three days, even though in reality it was only for a few seconds. That had been one of the worst things.

The only things she remembered from that horrible year besides the pain were the endless questions. They torture her to get her to talk. At first, she had thought they had captured the wrong person, but after awhile she began to tell them anything to get them to stop torturing her. But in doing that, she convinced herself that she was the right person, and began to make up even more stories about her life in order to stop the pain. That only caused them to become more interested in her, and try to torture more out of her.

The Akatsuki wanted some kind of power from her, but she couldn't exactly remember what it was they had wanted. In her mind, in the place of that, there was only a large gap filled with more pain and suffering. Rikou lifted her head slightly, pulling up the sleeve of her left arm and looking upon the scars.

They had all healed fairly well, but they left a sea of white lines, darker burn marks, holes and stitches etched permanently into her pale skin. She ran her cool fingers over the flesh, cooling it as she traced along a long scar that ran from the crook of her elbow all the way down to the palm of her hand.

They had also used a different, sharper type of pain when they suspected she was lying. They would break and re-break her fingers many times over. She held up her hand, letting her sleeve fall back into place. The medical-nin at the Hidden Sand had fixed her fingers well, they looked mostly normel, but they were thin and brittle. She could not make a full fist, although she could still punch, she could not bend the joints in her fingers fully due to the stress that had been placed upon them every time they were broken. In fact, a few of her fingers, her right pointer and her left pointer and middle fingers, had lost all sense of feeling, the nerves had been severed after excessive breaking.

She looked up into the sky, which was now fairly bright and allowed her to see the pale outlines of the trees more clearly. She had been able to see fine before, though, as her eyes were more suited to the darkness. In fact, she had almost perfect night vision due to the fact that she spent most of her time in the dark anyways, her eyes simply couldn't take too much sunlight.

She heard a soft rusling from inside, and remained still as Ken crawled out from the shelter, followed by Kirema, both back in their trenchcoats.

"You're up early. Again," stated Ken, standing and stretching. Rkou turned her head slightly.

"We should get going, if we leave now we'll be at the tower before noon," said Kirema, attatching his nekotes. Ken nodded and rubbed his hands together, trying to warm up. Rikou stood, the chains of her kamas feeling cold and steely against her body as she carefully slid out the weapon, wrapping it n it's place around her arms and neck.

"We should be careful," she said, turning to Kirema. "There will be groups of gennin around the tower waiting to ambush us and steal our scrolls."

"Yeah, yeah," said Kirema, heading out. She followed at a slight distance behind Ken as they reached the stream, looking around. The sun had risin by now and it glinted off something a little ways off, and to their left. It was the roof of the tower.

They changed directions, crossing the stream quickly and running through the forest towards the tower. Ken sped up, leaving Rikou even further behind as he went to say something to Kirema. She could see the tower gates ahead of them now, but she suddenly froze.

_Click._

She dodged behind a tree, jumping onto a branch and peeking out from behind, gasping.

A group of Sound-nin had ambushed the other two, and now held kunai to their throats, immobilizing them. The leader was crouched a few feet behind the other two as they restrained Ken and Kirema.

"Where is the other one? Which one of you has the scrolls?" demanded the one on the left, digging his kunai into Kirema's throat. Kirema gasped for breath as he struggled. The leader came forth and searched their trenchcoats, not finding the scrolls.

"Damnit, the other one must have it. No matter, they have to have all three to pass, so we'll just wait here until they show."

Rikou clenched her teeth, trying to think up a plan. She crouched down, calming herself as she closed her eyes and racked her mind for anything. Quickly thinking up a plan, she pulled out two smoke bombs.

She raised her hands, making a few seals, before whispering "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Two clones appeared beside her, crouching along with her in the tree's shadow. She handed one the smoke bombs and the other the two scrolls.

"Alright. I want you two to stay here and wait for my signal.Then you," she indicated the clone to her left, "will come forward with the scrolls when I say. When she is about three feet from me, I want you," she indicated the clone to her left, "to use the smoke bombs, alright? And don't let them get the scrolls, follow me after and give them back."

The two clones nodded silently as she readied her kamas silently. She dashed as quietly as was possible around the small clearing, coming up behind the leader, who had fallen back into place behind the other two as he waited.

"Damnit," growled Kirema. "Did she run off again!?"

Rikou frowned slightly. I'm not that unreliable, am I?

"Hehehe, looks like your team-mate's smarter than you two," said the leader. Rikou stepped up silently behind him and whacked him over the head with the end of her kama, knocking him instantly unconcious and hiding his body back in the bushes. She quickly looked at his appearance, bringing into her mind a visual before whispering "henge."

Taking on the form of the Sound-nin, she stepped back out quickly and fell into a crouch, as the leader had been doing.

"I'm getting tired of waiting. Hurry up and come out, or I'll order them to kill your tem-mates," said Rikou in the Sound-nins form. She stood, holding the kamas behind her back as she stepped in between the two other Sounds, looking into the bushes where her shadow clones were.

The bushes rustled slightly, and she saw a perfect replica of herself step into the open, holding out the two scrolls.

"Hehehe, good," she said to her clone. "Now bring them here and I'll let these two go."

"A-alright," muttered her clone, stepping forwards slightly.

"Kill them when she gives us the scrolls, and then kill her too," whispered Rikou to the other two, who grinned and tightened thier grip around Ken and Kirema.

"Don't, Rikou! Get away! Don't give them the scrolls!" gasped out Ken, struggling agains the grip of the Sound-nin.

"Get back!" yelled Kirema. But the clone kept coming forwards, holding out the Heaven and Earth scrolls.

"That's it, _just a few more feet,_" she said, the signal for the other to throw the smoke bombs.

"Don't!" Yelled Kirema.

The clearing was suddenly engulfed in smoke, and Rikou lashed out with her two kamas, knocking away the other two Sound-nin and releasing Ken and Kirema. She grabbed thier hands and pulled them in the opposite direction, bursting from the smoke and running into the forest, stepping over the still unconcious body of the real Sound-nin leader and heading into the forest.

She released her henge and reverted back to her normal self, slumping down and catching her breath as she released Ken and Kirema's arms. But they didn't have time to rest as the two other Sound-nin burst out of the bushes, quickly locating them and chasing after them.

As she forced herself up again, her two clones burst out as well, the one in front still carrying the scrolls.

"Rikou! Catch!" It yelled, throwing the scrolls towards her. She caught them quickly and ran with her team-mates towards the doors of the tower while her two clones occupied the Sound-nin.

Kirema placed his hand on the door and pushed it open, allowing the other two to follow him in.


	3. 3

"Then what the hell does that mean?" asked Kirema, pointing at the blank where a word appeared to be missing. Rikou read the message over again. They had just arrived inside, to find the place empty, the only thing being a notice on the wall.

"I think we should open the scrolls," she said, scanning the massage thoroughly.

"We'll be disqualified, won't we?"

"If you have a better idea, then go ahead," said Rikou, pulling out the two scrolls.

"You'd better be right about this, Rikou," warned Ken, looking at her aprehensively.

She unrolled the scrolls, revealing two words surrounded by symbols. "Hito... Jin? 'Person'? What does that-"

She suddenly dropped the scrolls as they began to smoke and fizz loudly. "A summoning scroll?"

There was a poof of smoke, and a chuunin appeared before them, his arms crossed casually. The smoke slowly drifted away.

"Team 2? Congradulations on passing the second part of the Chuunin exam," he said, smiling. "My name is Izumo, I'll be giving you your next instructions. You passed a fairly good time, only two days, and you're the third team to pass out of the remaining eleven."

"What does that mean?" asked Rikou quietly, pointing up at the message. Izumo turned to her and looked her over once.

"You're Hayate's younger sister, right? He'll be happy to hear you passed. The message is from the Hokage, I'm also here to explain that to you guys. It is the motto of chuunin. The 'Heaven' in this paragraph is talking about the shinobi's mind, while the 'Earht' is speaking of the shinobi's body.

"If a ninja does not posess 'Heaven' then they will not be able to succeed, and if they don't have 'Earth' then they will also fail. But if they have both, then they will be able to do anything."

Izumo picked up the scroll off the ground, holding it up for them to read the word 'person' that had confused Rikou earlier. "On the scroll, the 'person' refers to chuunin, and it goes here," he pointed up to the missing characters in the message. "With that word, it means 'These rules will guide a person's extremes.'"

Izumo rolled up the scroll. "Chuunins are at the rank of a military captain. You have the responsibility of leading a team, using the knowledge, stamina and inner wisdom that are required to preform your duties. I want you three to take on the third part of the exam with this Hokage's message in mind. That's all, the third part will be explained to you on the fifth day, until then you may stay in one of the rooms in this tower."

"Wait," said Kirema. "What would have happened if we opened the scroll during the exam? What would you have done to us?"

Izumo turned to face him, smiling again. "My orders were to put the exam participants into a state of unconciousness until the end of the exam if they opened the scrolls. You see, when on a mission, a shinobi might need to be trusted with important or confidential information, so it was testing your reliability. If you know the information and are captured by an enemy, they might interrogate you, and you might give away answers, so it is important that you learn to follow orders."

Izumo pocketed the two scrolls and turned to face one of the doors. "Follow me to you room," he said, walking away towards the door.

The three gennin followed him up a few flights of stairs, passing a number of closed doors as they reached the third floor of the tower and were shown to their room. Before Izumo left, Rikou piped up again.

"Excuse me, Izumo-san, but who were the other two teams that passed?"

"Let's see... I belive that it was the Sand team, and team eight of the Leaf. The Sand... they arrived only an hour and thiry-seven minutes into the exam, which is almost impossible. The old record was four hours."

"Oh, and is my brother here right now? I need to speak with him."

Izumo paused for a moment. "Yes, I think he's on the top floor. Just head up the stair until you reach the top and turn to the left, the first door. If he's not there, then try the room across."

"Thanks," she said as he turned and left. She looked around the room, there were three beds, one on each wall except for the wall with the door. There was a large window on the wall beside one of the beds from which the whole forest could be seen, and Konoha itself beyond that.

Rikou took the bed by the window, pulling her kamas from her coat and placing it carefully on the neatly made bed before turning around again and leaving her team-mates to themselves.

She began climbing the rest of the stairs, breathing heavily by the time she reached the top, on the seventh floor. She paused for a moment at the top, before following Izumo's instructions and turning to the door on her left.

She knocked lightly, waiting for an answer, before knocking again. No answer. She gently pushed the door open, but her brother wasn't there. His ninja-to, a family heirloom, was propped up agains the dresser at the foot of the neatly-made bed. On top of the dresser was a small bottle of pills like hers, the same type of medicine as hers. If the view from their room was amazing, she didn't know what to call this view. It almost made her feel sick as she looked out the window, looking seven stories down.

She turned and headed out of the room, closing the door lightly behind her and turning to the door across from it, knocking quietly again. She heard a cough from the other side that she knew was her brother, before she heard his voice, almost as quiet as her own.

"Come in," he said. She opened the door, peeking around the corner and looking in, stopping with one foot in the room.

The room was full of jounin, chuunin and the Hokage himself, all of whom were staring right at her. Her brother, Hayate, was sitting on the other side of the room beside the Sandaime. He coughed again. She swallowed hard.

"Go-gomen, Hokage-sama..." she said quietly, unsure whether or not to leave immediately or wait to be dismissed.

Hayate smiled. "You're here already, Rikou-chan? Just wait in your room and I'll come down later, alright?" he asked quietly.

Rikou nodded nervously, the eyes of the jounin all upon her. She slowly backed out of the room and gently closed the door behind her, sighing in relief. Izumo should have told me what was in this room beforehand, she thought, turning back down the hall and slowly descending the stairs.

Passing one of the windows on the sixth floor, she saw three forms sitting on the roof around the corner as their shadows were cast on the roof. She stopped her descent and opened the window, looking out onto the roof before stepping out fully. She swallowed hard as she looked down six stories and a small wind kicked up, blowing her short hair into her face and almost throwing her off balance.

She carefully stepped along the roof tiles, peeking around the corner and seeing the three Sand gennin speaking quietly.

"C'mon Gaara, listen to your older brother," said Kankuro, his face slightly beaded with sweat.

"I've never thought of myself as being related to you," said Gaara quietly. Temari shifted uncomfortably.

"But if we get disqualified now, the-"

"Shut up or I'll kill you," said Gaara. Kankuro stood angrily and walked quickly towards where Rikou was standing, hugging the wall for support. As he came around the corner, he almost kncked her over, but she grabbed the wall to avoid falling.

"Rikou! What-?"

"What is it Kankuro?" asked Gaara, turning his head slightly. Kankuro shoved Rikou behind the wall and out of sight.

"I-it's nothing, Gaara."

Gaara looked at him for a few moments, narrowing his eyes before turning back to the view. Kankuro let out his breath and moved behind the wall as well.

"Geez, you shouldn't go near that guy," he whispered, leading her back along the roof and inside. "He'll kill you if he gets half the chance."

Kankuro closed the window behind him, walking beside Rikou as they headed downstairs to the fifth floor. Kankuro led her into his room, removing his wrapped up Karasu and sitting on the bed, unwrapping it.

"You guys passed pretty quickly, your team must be pretty good to get past the second part so easily. And you don't even have a scratch on you. But I guess you never get hurt anyways, huh."

Rikou sat down beside him as he began going over the large puppet, checking the parts by removing each in turn and cleaning them.

"I heard your team got here in only an hour and a half," she said, picking up one of the parts of the Karasu and examining it, before replacing it.

"Well, we have Gaara," he said, as if it answered everything. Which it did.

"He... he really scares me, you know," she said quitly, remembering their first meeting. Gaara had wanted to kill her, he had said it so simply, as if it were obvious. 'I'm going to kill you.'

"And his eyes are so cold and dark. He always wants to see blood and kill."

"Well, at least you don't have to be around him twenty-four seven. I can't get over the fact that he even wants to kill me and Temari, we're his own siblings. It's like everyone's the same in his mind. And he never listens to us. Please don't go near him, he'd kill you."

Rikou looked up at him, grinning slightly. "I'm not that stupid. I don't want to die yet," she said quietly.

"Oh yeah. I brought you your birthday present. It's a bit late, but oh well," he said. He opened a compartment on Karasu and pulled out a small, black box, handing it to her.

She flicked the latch open and opened it, smiling at what was inside and lifting it. It was beautiful. It was a necklace with a small, blood red jewel on the end that was shaped like a tear and had thin rivulets of gold wrapped around it, the whole thing on a thin gold chain.

"Oh... It's beautiful, Kankuro!" she gasped, smiling.

Kankuro blushed slightly, turning back to his puppet and fiddling with one onf the smaller pieces. "It used to belong to my dad, the Kazekage, but he gave it to me and told me to give it to someone special, so I decided to give it to you."

Rikou attatched it around her neck, letting the delicate jewel fall onto her chest. She shifted slightly and hugged the Sand-nin, kissing him lightly on the cheek. "Thanks," she whispered into his ear. "And take off your hat sometimes," she added as an afterthought, pulling away his hat and revealing his short, brownish-red hair.

"Hey!" he said, abandoning the Karasu and trying to snatch the hat back. "Give it back!"  
Rikou moved it out of his reach by falling back on his bed, stretching out her arms. Kankuro almost fell of the bed as he tried to grab it, causing the loose pieces of his puppet to fall onto the floor. Rikou laughed quietly, something she hadn't done in quite awhile as Kankuro swore quietly and picked them up. She leaned forwards, sitting up again, and put his hat back in, pulling it over his eyes.

"Hey," he said, pushing it back up. He sat up again and faced her.

But Rikou stopped laughing as she felt something odd crawl up her ankles, sliding up her legs. She stood and tried to move, but her feet were frozen to the spot. She looked down, shifting her trenchcoat slightly and looking down.

"Sand?" she whispered, and started to pannick.

"What!?" yelled Kankuro, standing and looking at her feet, which were now completely engulfed in sand. Her eyes shifted to the door slowly and she saw a single form standing there with his arms crossed and his dark eyes staring her down. Gaara.

"What are you doing, Gaara!?" asked Kankuro. "Stop it!"

"Who is this? You're... that girl. What are you doing here?" whispered Gaara. The sand moved up her body, over her trenchcoat and she whimpered quietly, swallowing hard. Temari stepped up behind Gaara, reaching out a hand, but stopping, thinking of the consequences.

"Gaara! Don't! If we get disqualified now, the..." Temari trailed off.

"Why should I listen to you? I need more..."

"Listen to your sister!" she tried. Kankuro tried to pull Rikou away, but she was stuck to the floor.

"Don't do it Gaara!" hissed Kankuro.

"Shut up, I'll kill you too."

Rikou felt the sand crawl up her chest and she froze in fear as it slowly advanced past her collarbone, towards her neck.

There were footsteps coming from outside, three or four pairs, people were coming down the stair towards the room. The sand momentarily stopped inches from her neck as Gaara turned his attention away as three Leaf-nin, gennin, passed the door and froze in mid-step, each turning thier heads in silence and shock.

"What the-?" said one of them, the one with two identical red tatoos under each eye. There was a moment of silence as the Sand and the Leafs stared at eachother. Gaara slowly let the Sand fall as another pair of footsteps was heard coming down the hall.

A Leaf jounin stepped right past the door and out of sight, but doubled back and peeked around the corner just as Gaara let the rest of the sand fall from her body.

"Rikou-chan? What are you doing in here?" asked Hayate, stopping outside the door. Rikou glanced at Kankuro before quickly moving out of the room, past Gaara and the three Leaf genning towards her brother.

"Nothing," she whispered. Hayate paused for a moment before continuing down the hall beside her. She followed him back to his room, back up the stairs in complete silence. She looked out the window, the sun was setting.

She followed her brother into his room and closed the door lightly behind her. Hayate flopped back on his bed, sighing in exaughstion.

"So, you made it past the second part? Dad'll be proud of you when he finds out," Hayate coughed lightly, sitting up and massaging his face. "So, what did you want to see me for?"

"I need to refill my perscription, I didn't bring enough for this whole thing, I expected the seperate parts of the exam to have enough time in between for me to refill it myself, but everything is happening so quickly..."

Hayate paused for a moment. "You can take one of mine tonight, and tomorrow I'll head back to town with the next group and pick it up." He coughed lightly. "You should get some sleep. Is there anything else you want me to pick up?"

Rikou paused at the door, turning and facing him. "Umm... Can you get dad to fix my normal kama's? The old ones that i'm using are so unbalanced, they're really hard to fight with and they throw me off."

Hayate nodded and she turned around, exiting as he pulled out a large stack of paperwork and moved over to his desk, coughing quietly as she closed the door behind her. She leaned back against it, taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, remember her encounter with Gaara.

She slowly descended the stairs back to her room, pausing outside the door before pushing it open and stepping in.

"Where'd you run off to?" asked Ken. He was cleaning his katana on his bed, an empty cup of ramen on the bedside table. Kirema was nowhere in the room.

"Did you go see your boyfriend again? You shouldn't go near those three, especially not that Gaara.kid, he's nothing but trouble."

She moved over to her bed, lifting her kamas off and placing them on her own table.

"If you go downstairs you can get some dinner," said Ken, turning back to his sword and working out a smudge with a white cloth.

"I've lost my appetite," she said. Ken looked up at her.

"Umm... maybe you should at least try to eat, you haven't eaten at all for two days now."

Rikou fell face down on her bed, burying her face in her pillows. "I feel sick, I think I have a fever. I should take this off and cool down," she muttered, her voice muffled by the pillows. A moment later, she forced herself up. She felt Ken watching her closely as she removed her trenchcoat, but didn't care. She had been cutting back on taking her medicine, and it was starting to affect her.

She pulled her coat off and threw it at the foot of her bed, taking a deep breath and sitting down, looking over her arms and frowning. So many scars, she thought, looking at the white marks covering her skin. They'll be there forever.

She felt the slightly cooler air cause every mark on her body to burn slightly, across her shoulders, over her arms, up her neck, and it felt good to let the cool air caress her for the first time in a long while.

"That's what they did to you?" asked Ken, staring at her arms.

"Yeah," she whispered, lifting an arm and examining it in the light. "I really feel sick, I'm going to try and get some sleep tonight. I"m getting my perscription refilled tomorrow, so I'll feel better then. I think I got too much sun."

"Why does your body react like that to sunlight anyways?" asked Ken, sheathing his katana and resting it on his table.

"I'm not sure. Everyone in my family has the disease. Or sickness. Whatever it is. It really hit mum hard last year, that's how she died, in a hospital bed. Gekkou's just can't take the sun, it does things to our bodies. We never get much sleep, and eat poorly, but it's not like I'm trying to, my body just does it on it's own. If I could, I obviously wouldn't be doing things like that. I'm just not sure why it happened in the first place. Every generation the sickness get's stronger, right now there are only three Gekkou's left. Me, dad, and Hayate. Our family is already doomed. Even if we pass the title to the next generation, the sickness will kill them before they reach the age of fifteen. The doctors said I'd die at eighteen. Five years left. They said my brother has until twenty-five, and dad has a few more years to go."

Rikou slid under the covers, rolling over to face the wall and leaving Ken to his own thoughts.

" 'Night," she whispered, closing her eyes and returning to the nightmares.


	4. 4

"Thanks," she said, catching the bottle of white pills.

"And dad fixed them up for you. He made them lighter and more balanced," said Hayate, holding out a pair of black and silver kamas. They were slightly smaller than her current ones, and the silver chain connecting them was long and thin, but much stronger and easier to swing.

"More balanced? I thought these were as balanced as they'd ever get."

Hayate handed the weapons to her and turned. "Dad must've taken them to that blacksmith guy, he's pretty good with metals."

Before Hayate left, he coughed and stopped, turning around and facing her again.

"Something's wrong with dad too, he seems much sicker than usual, and he hasn't been very active lately. Just though I'd tell you, in case.... well, I have to finish some paper work, I'll see you tomorrow for the third part."

Hayate left the small kitchen, turning back up the stairs and coughing a few times. It was the fourth day of the exam, and most of the teams had arrived. Yesterday, the atomoshpere had changed dramatically, everyone noticed. The Hokage was out, moving from room to room, there were a large number of extra jounin and even a few Anbu stalking the halls. When she had asked her own brother about it, he had simply shook his head or changed the subject.

Rikou moved over to the counter, picking a cup of beef ramen and opening the lid. She moved over to the small stove, wrapping her weapon out of sight under her trenchcoat before pouring steaming water from a kettle into the styrofoam cup and resealing it.

Now that she thought about it, many strange things had been happening in the last day. Everyone seemed tense and alert, the smallest noises causing the jounins and chuunins to jump. It had even been starting to affect her now, and when she heard small noises she found herself tensing up and getting ready for an attack of some sort.

After a few more minutes of waiting, she peeled away the lid of the ramen cup and grabbed a pair of chopsticks, holding it carefully as she picked her way back up to her room. The sun was fairly high in the sky now, almost starting it's downwards arch. She opened the door to her room, finding it empty as it had been before. Ken and Kirema were training with eachother in the arena, most likely.

She quickly swallowed a pill and finished her ramen, throwing the cup away in the garbage can in the corner before sitting down on her bed and resting her chin on the windowsill, looking across the forest. But she had hardly a moments silence before she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," she said quietly, turning around.

The chuunin that had greeted her team on the first day, Izumo, opened the door and stepped inside.

"The Hokage is calling all of the exam participants to the arena to explain what is to happen next," he said, glancing around the room as if something were about to attack him.

"What do you mean? It's only day four, isn't there one more day left?"

Izumo turned around to leave. "All remaining teams have passed already, so there is no need to wait."

Izumo left the room, closing the door behind him lightly as he headed to the next room to deliver the Hokage's message. Rikou stood, blinking as the light glinted off the handle of the door. Before she headed out, she grabbed her other pair of kamas, her old ones, just in case. She had already guessed what the third part of the exam would consist of. Ninja versus ninja, one on one battles against everyone, even your own team mates. They had done the same last year, th only difference being the exam had been held in the Hidden Rain.

Wrapping her black kamas around the outside of her body, on top of her trenchcoat, she headed out, opening the door and heading down the stairs to the arena. She felt the necklace Kankuro had givin her bounce lightly on her chest as she descended, and reached up to tuck it inside of her coat to protect it.

She pushed open the doors that led to the arena, heading through another doorway before she reached it. At the head of a large group of gennin stood the Hokage, behind him a number of jouni and chuunin, her own sensei, Kanzu, standing behind her brother. She felt a small twinge as she stepped forwards, and looked up, to the left, noticing two Anbu members in the shadows, who quickly vanished as she caught a glimpse of them.

"Hurry up, Rikou," called back Kirema. "You're late!"

"Sorry," she muttered, breaking into a run to join up with the rest of the gennin. She fell into line behind Ken, completing team two. She looked around at the other teams, there were six from the Leaf, one from the Sound, one from the Sand and... She swallowed hard as she caught the eye of the Grass team they had encountered just outside the tower. _So they got their scrolls_, she thought, tearing her eyes away from the needle-like glares she was recieving from the three Grass-nin.

_This is odd_, she thought, looking around again._ All of this year's rookie gennins passed this test. They must be really strong to get this far on their first exam, our team dropped out in the second round last year. But these guys... _She glanced at Naruto._ Especially him... They're going to make great shinobi, unlike me..._

The quiet mutterings of the gennin and jounin were cut off as the examiner for the second part began to speak.

"First off," started Anko. "For the second test... Congratulations on passing!"

Anko paused for a moment before continuing. "Hokage-sama will now explain the third test, so listen carefully."

"Yes," said the Sandaime, clearing his throat. "But before I explain that... There is something I'd like you to know. It concerns the true reason for the Chuunin Selection Exam."

_I've heard this same speech before_, she thought, shifting slightly.

"Why do we have all the allianced countries taking the exam together? 'To promote friendship among the countries,' 'To raise the level of shinobi." I don't want you to be confused about the true meaning. This exam is... a replacement for war among the allied countries."

"What does that mean?" asked one of the gennin to Rikou's left.

"If you go back in time, the current allied countries were once enemies who fought eachother over who would rule. In order to prevent wasteful fighting, the stage that these countries chose for battle... That is the origins of this chuunin selection exam."

"Why the hell do we have to do that crap!? Isn't this thing for deciding whose a chuunin!?"

Rikou turned her head slowly, smiling slightly at the sudden outburst from Naruto.

"It is a fact that this exam decides which shinobi have what it takes to become a chuunin, but on the other hand, this exam has another side. Where each country's shinobis risks their lives to protect their country's prestige. Watching this third exam will be leaders and influential individuals from many countries who make up the clients of shinobi.

"The leaders of the countries will also be there to watch each of your battles. If the strength of a country is clear, that country will receive more clients. And conversly, if seen as weak, they will lose clients, and this will signal to potential enemy countries that 'Our village has this much power,' so it will send a political message to the outsiders."

"Yeah, but why!? Why do we have to risk our lives in battle!?" burst out the dog boy with the red tatoos on his cheeks.

"The strength of the country is the strength of the village, the strength of the village is the strength of the shinobi, and the strength of the shinobi is born through life-risking battles.

"This exam is a place to see each country's strength, and to show off your own strength. It only has meaning because lives are at risk. That is why those that have come before you have fought in the chuunin exam for this dream that is meaningful."

The girl who had first spoken piped up again, raising her hand. "But then why... do you say stuff about it being for 'friendship'?"

"I said it at the beginning. I don't want you to confuse the purpose of this. By loosing life and establishing balance. This is the shape of friendship in the world of shinobi. Before we begin the third test, I will tell you one more thing. This is not just a test, this is a life-risking battle, with your dreams and your country's prestige on the line."

"I don't care what it is, just hurry up and tell us what this life-risking battle entails," muttered Gaara. Rikou swallowed hard, If I get him as my opponent, I think I should quit. He's nothing but trouble, like Kankuro said.

"Yes, I'd like to now explain the third test, but..."

The Hokage was cut off by a small puff of smoke as none other than her brother, Hayate, appeared in a crouch before him. What's happening? she thought, looking past Ken to better view him.

"Actually," came his voice, as quiet as always, followed by a few coughs. "I apologize, Hokage-sama... from here on, as the referee... will you please allow me, Gekkou Hayate..."

"By all means," said the Hokage, smiling. Rikou grinned, this is great, she thought. My own brother is the referee! He looks like he didn't get much sleep at all... I hope he gives a long speech, he gets so nervous in front of people.

Hayate rose from the ground and turned to face the group of gennins. "Hello, everyone, I'm Hayate. Umm... before the third test, there's something I'd like you to do. Umm... It's a preliminary for the third test, to decide who gets to participate in the main event." He coughed twice after his speech.

"Preliminary?"

"Preliminary? What do you mean!?" shouted a plain-looking gennin from team ten. Rikou thought his name was Nara Shikamaru.

The pink-haired gennin, Sakura, from team seven spoke up again. "Sensei... I don't understand this preliminary, but... Why aren't all the people here allowed to participate in the next test?"

Hayate coughed nervously, glancing at Rikou. "Umm... because the first and second tests were too easy this year, we have a bit too many gennin remaining. According to the chuunin exam rules, we must have a preliminary and reduce the number of participants for the third test. As Hokage-sama indicated earlier, there will be guests at the thrd test, so the fights could take too long, and we are limited in time.

"Umm... so anyways... Those who are not feeling well," he glanced back to Rikou. "Those who feel like quitting after these explanations, please come forward now, since we will be starting the preliminary immediately."

The dog-boy burst out again. "What!!? Right now!?!?"

There was a momentary silence as his question was ignored by Hayate. Suddenly, the white-haired gennin, Kabuto, stepped forward.

"Umm... I'm going to quit," he announced. Naruto's jaw dropped behind him and Rikou didn't pick up what he said to the gennin, but it didn't deter him from quitting.

"Ummm..." said Hayate, scanning a clipboard and coughing quietly. "You're Yakushi Kabuto-kun from the Hiddn Leaf, right? You may leave now. Umm... does anyone else wish to retire? Oh, umm... I forgot to mention that from now on it will be individual battling. You may raise your hand based on your own judgement."

There were no other hands risin, so Hayate coughed and continued. Umm... now... There are no more retiring, right? Now... Let's begin in the preliminary. It will consist of one on one fighting, so you will basically fight as if in a real life confrontation. Since we now have exactly twenty-six gennin remaining, we will conduct thirteen matches and... Ummm... the winners will advance to the third test."

On the wall behind him, a curtain was lifted to reveal a black box mounted above the giant statue of two hands making a seal.

"This electric scoreboard will randomly choose the opponents and the order of the battles. Umm.. This is sudden, but let's announce the first two names for the first match."

A number of yellow digits began to form on the board as Rikou turned her head up to view the first two names.

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi.

"Now... These two entrants come to the front," announced Hayate. Sasuke stepped forwards, dropping his hand away from where he had been rubbing the back of his neck. One of Kabuto's team mates, the taller one with a mask covering his face and his eyes covered with sunglasses, also stepped forwards to face the Uchiha.

"The two participants for the first match are Uchiha Sasuke and Akado Yoroi. Are you ready?"

"Yes..." said Yoroi, eying Sasuke.

"Yeah," said Sasuke, grinning.

"Now, we will be starting the first match. Will everyone except the two participants please move to the upper level?"

Rikou moved along with the other gennin, following to the left of Kirema, Ken to the right, and heading up the stairs. Their sensei, Kanzu, followed up behind them as they found an empty place to watch from.

Rikou stood by the railing beside Kirema for a moment, before slumping down, sticking her legs between the bar and dangling them over the edge as she warily watched the battle begin, eventually closing her eyes in boredom. The Uchiha will win, he's one of this year's genious', she thought.

"Rikou, you should pay attention for once. If you watch now, you'll know what you'll be facing in the third part," warned her sensei, nudging her with his foot.

"I don't have enough luck to get that far, sensei, you should know that. I'll probably get matched with that Gaara kid and be forced to forfeit or be killed," she replied, keeping her eyes closed.

A moment later, she opened them to see Yoroi lying on his back in a small puddle of blood, Sasuke panting a few feet off. Her brother moved forwards, checking the Leaf's vital signs before standing and indicating the exaughsted Sasuke.

"I am stopping the fight here, and thus... The winner for the first match, Uchiha Sasuke... Has passed the prelims!"

A three man team of medical-nin appeared, lifting Yoroi onto a stretcher and taking him away as Sasuke'd sensei whispered something into his ear before leading him away. These guys are pretty serious... maybe I should just forfeit...

Ummm... We will now begin the next match," announced Hayate. Rikou slowly lifted her head to look at the next two names, hoping it wasn't her.

Zaku Abumi vs. Aburame Shino.

Rikou closed her eyes. She didn't know anything about either of these two, so she just dozed off. Unfortunately for her, her moment of peace didn't last long before she heard a voice behind her.

"Yes, It's my turn. Wish me luck!" said Kirema, jumping down from the railing, right over Rikou's head.

"Huh? What happened?" asked Rikou, watching as Kirema landed in a perfect crouch, his blue-flamed trenchcoat blowing the dust up around him in a circle as he landed.

"He's fighting one of the Grass guys, the ones that we fought before. Kawa Akari," said Ken, pointing to where Kirema faced his opponent, a Grass-nin in a completely black outfit.

"The next match is between Unkei Kirema and Kawa Akari. Are you ready?"

"Yeah," said the Grass-nin. "I'll get yo back for that time in the forest."

"Bring it on," said Kirema, smiling. His hands darted to his pockets, emerging with a nekote on each of his fingers.

Hayate brought down his arm and jumped back, "Begin!"


	5. 5

"Hehehe, I'm gonna rip you apart!" shouted Akari. He brought up his habds, revealing a pair of cat's claws, their long, curved blades glinting in the stadium light as he dashed towards Kirema. Idiot, thought Rikou, sitting forwards slightly as Kirema shifted.

He fell into a crouch and quickly took out the opponents legs with two swift, sliding kicks, spinning on his left hand and using it as a pivot point to trip the Grass-nin. Akari fell forwards, but hit the ground with his hands first, springing himself back upright and slashing down at the place where Kirema had been moments before.

"Gotta be faster," said Kirema, slashing his nekotes at Akari, who moved just in time as they ripped the shoulders of his black outfit to shreds.

This guy can't possibly beat Kirema, he's too fast. Rikou turned her head slightly to better view the battle, the kama's on the outside of her body jingling slightly against the metal railings.

Kirema kicked out at Akari, who caught it and spun him, sending him towards the ground. But he also landed on his hands, instead twisting akwardly around in what seemed to Rikou an impossible postition, before flipping up and kicking the Grass-nin in the chest, sending him flying back towards the wall.

He's gotten more flexible, she thought as she watched the Grass-nin lift his body off the ground and pausing as he faced Kirema. His black outfit was suddenly ripped apart a vines, vines, burst from his body, completely surrounding him before receding, leaving him in a green and white, untouched outfit.

Two thorned vines erupted from his wrists, each with a number of thorns running along it. He charged at a confused Kirema, who barely managed to flip backwards and avoid entanglement in the vines.

"Gotta be faster," said the Grass-nin, using Kirema's words against him as more vines shot from his arms, wrapping around Kirema.

Kirema lashed out with his nekote's, reinforcing the metal claws with chakra and manging to cut away the vines, but the Grass-nin came up behind him suddenly, holding a kunai to his throat. But Kirema reacted quickly before the vines could wrap him up and crush him.

He shifted, turning his foot outwards slightly before raising his knee up and quickly pacing his foot just above Akari's kneecap. He suddenly dug it in and slid it down with amazing force before sliding it down his shin and into the base of his foot, leaving a red slide-mark all the way down. The Grass-nin cried out in pain and Rikou squinted to see what had happened, gasping as Kirema twisted his foot painfully deeper into Akari's. He was wearing a pair of ashiko's, sanadals with four small, sharp spikes coming out from each of the soals.

The Grass-nin fell away, and Rikou could cleary see the damage. His kneecap was... not where it was supposed to be... and his shin was spliced open. His ankle seemed broken, and his foot... His foot was crumpled, a large dent with blood pooling in it just past his ankle. But Kirema wasn't done.

As the vines fell away, twisting on the ground for a moment before retreating back to tAkari, Kirema stood fully, dusting off his blue-flamed trenchcoat, moving over to the fallen Grass-nin and pulling out a white cloth that was neatly folded.

"Too slow," he said, kneeling down and covering his mouth with his cloth, forcing it on him and pinning his arms with one hand as his movements became more feeble. A moment later, the Grass-nin passed out, falling limp and slumping back. Kirema stood and placed his hands in his pockets, removing them with no cloth and no nekotes.

Hayate stepped forwards, kneeling beside the Grass-nin and running his hands across his body, checking vital signs before standing.

"Kawa Akari is unable to continue this match, so therefore... Unkei Kirema is the winner!"

A team of medical-nin appeared and lifted the Grass-nin onto a white stretcher, carrying him out of the arena as Kirema came up the stairs and rejoined them.

"Well fought, Kirema," said Kanzu, ruffling Kirema's hair as if he were a small child.

"Stop it," said Kirema, pushing his hand away, Kanzu smiled, he always did this to annoy Kirema, and it worked every time.

"What was up with that guy? What was with the vines?" asked Ken, turning to their sensei.

"Most likely a bloodline," he answered simply.

"So I defeated a bloodline with only a bit of taijutsu? I thought they were supposed to be the ultimate weapons," said Kirema, dusting off a sleeve.

"They are, it just depends on what the bloodline ability is and how well the user applies it."

"So basically," said Ken, thinking about it for a moment. "Basically this guy sucks at using his bloodeline?"

"... I guess you could put it that way," said Kanzu, looking oddly at Ken.

"... You've gotten stronger, Kirema," said Rikou quietly, turning back to the arena.

Kirema fell back into his normal place, behind Rikou, standing and leaning on the rail and looking down at her. "You would have noticed if you ever came to training. You sleep all day and never train with our team," he said. Rikou was about to reply, until she saw the next two names on the board.

Tsurugu Misumi vs Kankuro.

Rikou suddenly stood, knocking Kirema off balance and causing him to fall back as she stood to better see Kankuro.

"Oww..."

She turned to look at Kirema, helping him up. "Sorry..."

"Why the sudden intrest?" asked her sensei, glancing down at the Sand-nin and the Leaf-nin who were now facing eachother. Rikou turned back to the arena.

"That's her boyfr-"

Kirema was cut off by Ken, but Kanzu caught what he was saying.

"Boyfriend? The Leaf? Or... The Sand?"

Rikou said nothing, waiting for her brother to start the battle. She caught Kankuro's eye and smiled as he grinned up at her, closing his eyes as he grinned cat-like.

"Please take this seriously, Kankuro-kun," she whispered as he turned back to face Musumi.

Kanzu heard her though, and narrowed his eyes. "You should not go near gennin from other villages, Rikou," he warned. But she wasn't listening, the battle was about to begin and Kirema and Ken stepped up beside her to watch.

"We will now be beginning the fourth match," announced her brother as the opponents faced eachother.

"Unlike Yoroi, even against little punks, I show no mercy," threatened Misumi. Kankuro grinned.

"I'll say it now, if I put my techniques up against you, it will be over immediately, so forfeit now. I will end this quickly."

Kankuro grinned wider and reached up to one of the straps that held up the Karasu puppet on his back. "Then I also..." he fully removed the wrapped up puppet and placed his hand on it, standing it upright beside him. "Will end this quickly."

"I won't give you a chance to do anything!!" shouted Misumi, charging at him and forcing him to block, releasing the wrapped up puppet and letting it fall to the ground.

Rikou gasped as, instead of making solid contact with his upheld arms, Misumi's arm wrapped around it, snake-like, bonelessly, elastically. A moment later, Kankuro was completely wrapped up in Misumi's flexible limbs, one arm wrapped solidly around his neck from behind as Misumi began to strangle him.

"It's over, looks like your boyfriend's out," said Kirema, sighing boredly.

"Far from it," she said, causing the other two to look over at her. "That's not Kankuro-kun."

"What!?" asked Ken, turning back to where Kankuro was being suffocated by Misumi. Hayate looked just about ready to step in as Misumi tightened his arm around Kankuro's neck.

Rikou flinched, hoping she was right as she heard a loud, sickening crack and Kankuro's head slumped forwards.

"He broke his neck," said Kanzu. Rikou shifted, glancing at where the wrapped up puppet lay abandoned on it's side.

"Damn... Idiot... you made me kill you," muttered Misumi. Hayate sighed and stepped forwards..

"Don't Hayate," she muttered to herselff.

"He's dead," said Kirema, eying Kankuro's motionless body.

"I already told you, that's not-"

Rikou was cut off as Kankuro gave a twitch, his head turning around fully to look Misumi in the eyes. "Then, is it my turn now!?"

"His face!" exclaimed Ken, pointing down at Kankuro, who was slowly becoming less and less Kankuro like.

Rikou smiled as she watched, he's getting better as well. Kankuro's face began to crumble, purple kabuki face-paint and all, and his clothes were replaced by a rough-cut rag as his body grew an extra pair of arms, wrapping around Misumi, and his hair grew brown and bushier. A moment later, where kankuro had been standing, now hung the Karasu, one of his puppets, from Misumi's neck.

The wrapped up thing on the floor beside the Karasu and Misumi suddenly twitched, a black-gloved hand appearing from within the bandages and pulling, sending the bandages flying in circles as Kankuro appeared in a crouch and they fell around him. He had one of his hands held out, strings of chakra visible, as he held up the other one to keep the bandages from falling on him.

"He... he's a puppeteer!?" asked Kirema, staring down at Kankuro. Rikou grinned slightly.

"I'll go easy on your neck," said Kankuro. There were a series of sickening cracks as he twitched his fingers, causing most of the bones in Misumi's body to break. Hayate stepped forward as Misumi's body fell limp in the grasp of Karasu.

"This battle cannot be continued. Winner, Kankuro!"

Kankuro let Misumi drop to the ground as he pulled Karasu back to him, letting the puppet fall across his shoulders and picking up the bandages, heading up the stairs. Rikou pushed off from the banister to go and meet up with him before he could return to Gaara.

"Rikou! I told you not to fratenize with members of other villages!" hissed her sensei, reaching out to grab her arm. But she was already past him and halfawy to Kankuro.

"Kankuro!" she called out, intercepting him with a hug. "That was great, you almost fooled me."

Kankuro smiled as she oulled away.

"That guy was nothing, he didn't even land a scratch on me," he said, putting down the Karasu and crouching down beside it, starting to wrap it back up.

Rikou glanced down at the current match, where two girls, a blonde and a pink-haired girl were having what looked to her to be a cat fight. She frowned slightly at their crude technique.

"Everyone has improved so much except me. I haven't even trained alot lately except with my brother when he teaches me the five dances of Konoha. And right now I only know one of them."

Kankuro glanced down to the girls as they blasted eachother back, knocking themselves unconcious, and frowned. "Not everyone, you're way better than those two. But..."

She turned back to face him as he shouldered the now fully wrapped up Karasu. "What?"

'I want you to promise me something," he said simply. She glanced down at the next two opponents, and saw Temari, one of the three Sands, and a dark-haired Leaf gennin, Tenten, facing eachother.

"What is it?"

"Well," he said. "This narrows it down a bit. But promise me..."

She watched as Tenten was thrown back by Temari, who had opened her fan fully and was saying something to the Leaf-nin.

"Promise me that if you get Gaara you will forfeit."

She turned back to Kankuro as the fight ended, and to his suprise, laughed quietly, a thing she only did around him.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm not stupid enough to throw away my life this early," she said, but stopped laughing as she looked upon the next match, Nara Shikamaru versus KinTsuchi.

She turned around fully, placing her hands lightly on the railing. "Not that stupid... I still have five years left... only..."

Kankuro came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck gently before resting his head on her left shoulder.

"Doctors are always wrong," he whispered into her ear. She closed her eyes and relished in the moment. She turned around and buried her face into his chest, squeezing her eyes shut tighter.

"Doesn't matter, it'll still hit me soon."

She felt Kankuro shift nervously and broke aprt, turning her head slightly and stepping back as she saw Ken, Kirema and Kanzu all standing there. She stepped further back from Kankuro, who shifted uncomfortably.

"Uhhh... I'm gonna go now," said Kankuro, glancing at the back of Rikou's head before brushing past them and heading back to his own team. Rikou narrowed her eyes dangerously, glaring back at her sensei angrily.

"What do you want," she said, her voice low and dangerous as she glared at them.

"Rikou, think about what you're doing before you do something stupid," warned her sensei.

"Why would you care? It's my life," she muttered.

"Yeah, but if it affects others, especially the village in any way, it isn't just your life anymore," said Kanzu.

She narrowed her eyes further, pausing as her brain worked harder for a moment. "Something's wrong."

Kanzu said nothing, but his expression had become more stoic. He's trying to hide his expression.

"You're hiding something. You should've known I'd see through that. It happened today, didn't it. The Anbu," she motioned to one of the doorways where a faint shadow was standing. "Have been patrolling lately, the jounin and chuuninn are jumpy and alert, even the Hokage has bee more active."

"I knew you'd notice. If anyone would notice, it would have been you," said Kanzu, trying to avoid further confrontation. But she was not done.

"The village is in danger, isn't it? Something bad has happened, something that has caught the eye of the village leaders..." she paused here, letting her sharp words sink in. She was at least as smart as a normal jounin, but she could see that her sensei had underestimated her this time.

"Ugh, I told you, snesei... This is why you shouldn't have spoken with her, she always twists the conversations around and uses it against you," muttered Kirema, turning away slightly.

Kanzu smiled. "You're so clever, Rikou-"

"You're avoiding my question, sensei. Is it... Is it the Akatsuki?"

"Listen to me, Rikou!" he said, grabbing her arm tightly. She gasped and tried to pull back.

"... Let go of me, sensei... you're hurting me..."

"Not until you listen to me. Don't go near the gennin from the other villages. I know you have better sneses than almost anyone in this stadium, so trust yourself when you feel something is wrong. Listen to your instinct and stay away, it might save your life."

Rikou stopped struggling as Ken vanished, his name had been called.

"There's no life to save in the first place."

"Then why are you still alive?"

Rikou laughed softly, something her sensei and Kirema had never heard from her. It wasn't soft or because something was funny, it was cruel and harsh. "What do you mean? My body is dying more and more every second, don't you get it? I can spend less and less time outside, my medication is steadily increasing, my bones and muscles are deteriorating...

"Two years, they told me, two years until I will have to be permanently hospitalized. It's pointless for anyone to spend time on me, trying to teach me to become a shinobi, heh. And you don't need to worry about me denying my fear, I'm always afraid. Afraid of pain, afraid of death, afraid of losing people closest to me. I have alot of weaknesses, I make a horrible shinobi

"You also don't need to worry about me finding out too much infrormation about whatever is going on around here. If there's one stupid little thing I've learned from my dull life it's that knowing too much makes your life considerably shorter, if you know what I mean. Now let me go..."

She snapped her arm away easily from her sensei, brushing past him and stopping before Kirema and glaring at him before brushing past him as well. She noticed Ken sitting a ways off, leaning against the railing and watching one of the fights. She came up next to him.

"I'm gonna forfeit," she muttered. He turned to her.

"No, you're not."

She remained silent as she watched the battle between Akamichi Chouji and Dosu Kinuta.

"How many more battles are there? I want to get some sleep."

"One more after this," he said.

"So, I'm next then? Last?"

He nodded.

"...I suppose I'll try this year.... try to get to the Third test..."

There was a large explosion, and when the dust cleared, the Leaf-nin, Chouji, lay in a pile of rubble on the ground.

"The winner for this round is Dosu Kinuta!" announced Hayate as the medical team tended to Chouji. Dosu moved back up to the second level. Rikou closed her eyes as she saw the digits on the board begin to move for the last time today.

"For the last match," announced Hayate. "It will be Tsuta Kuzu versus Gekkou Rikou!"


	6. 6

Rikou opened her eyes, making sure her black kamas were secure around the outside of her trenchcoat before hopping up on the railing and jumping into the arena, surveying her opponent for her match.

It was the leader of the three Grass-nin, the one with the large spear, Tsuta Kuzu. This is just great, she thought as her opponent glared angrily at her, clenching his teeth. He was more than a head taller than her, and his body was well-muscled.

"Examiner..." he growled, turning to her brother. "Why do you two share the same family name? You're related!?"

Hayate coughed. "Yes... she's my sister."

"Isn't that unfair to the opponent!?" shouted someone from the raised balcony. Hayate turned.

"Umm... It is nessescary for her to have a family member to moniter her condition. And I will not favour either opponenets in this match."

"Why her!? Whyy does she get special treatment!?!?"

So that's why he's examiner, she thought sourly. I don't need this kind of constant care, Hayate.

"That's not important. The Hokage has already discussed this with the council, and they have already decided on it... Are you ready to begin?"

"I don't give a shit if your big brother is here to watch over you, I'm still gonna rip you apart! You caused us alot of trouble when you stole Akari's scroll!"

Rikou said nothing to this remark, instead unwrapping her black kamas from around her neck and arms, readying them nervously, she didn't like the anger she felt coming off of this Grass-nin.

Hayate looked between the two, before stepping back. "Begin!"

Hayate jumped fully back as Kuzu tore head-on towards her. She stepped forwards slightly, biting her lip as she lashed out with her left kama and dodged right in the same movement. But Kuzu was fast. He brought up his large spear and let the kama wind itself around before pulling, forcing Rikou to either come forwards or let go. She came forwards.

Kuzu used the other end of his spear to try to knock her back, but she ducked. He swung it again, this time ripping the other weapon forcefully from her right hand as she jumped to avoid being hit, lashing out with her foot and catching himin the jaw, sending him staggering back a few feet where he caught his breath, as did Rikou.

Kuzu untangled her weapon from his spear as she watched, placing one kama under his foot and holding onto the other one before snapping his hand up, breaking the chain with sheer force. Rikou swallowed hard.

"Quit dodging and fight properly," he growled, running at her again, his eyes glinting dangerously. He fell into a complicated dance using his spear to slash, cut and stab as she jumped back over and over, trying to avoid being hit, and actually completely avoiding a scratch, untill...

Rikou turned her head and had only a moment to react as she noticed a cement wall looming behind her. She skidded to a halt, looking back forwards before jumping quickly and clinging to the wall with her hands and feet with chakra. The large spear embedded itself inches into the concrete where she had been moments before, but by now she was twelve feet up the wall, in a crouch.

"Quit running and dodging! You can't possibly have any chance of winning unless you fight back, bitch!"

Rikou ground her teeth as she watched the Grass-nin fall back for a moment, into a different stance. He's switching styles... I need a plan.

Rikou moved her hand to her pocket, producing three smoke bombs, enough smoke to buy her enough time. She quickly threw them towards Kuzu, a moment later the entire arena being engulfed in thick, rolling waves of smoke. Rikou smiled, making a number of complicated seals in the smoke, as she heard the voices of the confused onlookers.

"What the hell!?" shouted Kuzu as the smoke began to clear.

Around him, stood five other Rikou's, all perfect shadow clones. The Gekkou clan heavily relied on shadow clones in many of their jutsus, and three out of the four dances, so in her training it had been one of the first jutsus she had learned.

The five Rikou's each pulled out eight kunai, four in each hand, sliding their fingers between the rings on the ends and charging forwards. Kuzu remained still as the clones fell upon him, but they were suddenly exploded backwards as he spun in a full circle, chakra crackling from the end of his spear and causing all of the Rikou's to disappear in puffs of smoke before they even hit the ground.

"Huh?" he said, stopping his spin. "Where's the real one?"

But as he turned back to the arena, he noticed one of the clones had not charged and was facing him. He charged at her, slashing with his crackling spear, but she managed to dodge every attack, this time avoiding being pushed back.

As he thrust out at her, she grapped the spear below the head and pulled it from his hands, casting it across the arena. But before she could return to the battle, a fist hit her hard in the stomach. She coughed as she was thrown back, hitting the ground hard.

Before she dissappeared in a puff of smoke.

Rikou watched the battle from her current position, upside-down on the ceiling of the arena, directly above Kuzu as he looked around, confused. She cut off her chakra flow through her feet and fell from the cieling, slowly flipping around in mid-air and landing a few feet behind him silently, picking up her two, individual kamas, the broken chains rattling and causing Kuzu to spin around faster than she had hoped, punching the real Rikou in the stomach and sending her flying to the other side of the arena, where she skidded to a halt on her left side, frozen in shock.

She hadn't been hit at all for a long time, and was not used to the rolling pain that burned through her body, her muscles contracting, her nerves burning, her head throbbing in the wave of pain that suddenly overtook her body, causing her to remember the torture.

"What's wrong?" laughed Kuzu, stepping forwards.

"Get up, Rikou! You can't freeze up like this evey time you get hurt!!" shouted Kirema from above.

"Can;t take pain!? Hahaha, this is nothing! You haven't felt true pain before, bitch!" shouted Kuzu, moving further forwards and grinning. "But I'll introduce you to it!"

Rikou closed her eyes, looking for a way to deal with the pain. Need... more time... She shifted slightly, opening her eyes and pulling out her last smoke bomb, tossing it into the middle of the arena, between her and Kuzu.

Kuzu stopped laughing as the smoke rolled across the arena again, and Rikou charged out at him, pinning him to the cement wall behind him. A small, sharp pair of silver kamas suddenly exploded from the smoke, spinning wildy and heading right for them as Rikou kept him pinned. The two kamas struck them in their hands, going through both of them as Rikou disappeared in another puff of smoke, leaving Kuzu pinned to the cement wall spread-eagle with the two silver blades though his hands and the chain taught in front of his neck.

Before he could break free, however, the two, individual black kamas also exploded from the cloud of smoke, cutting clean though his feet as they connected with the wall behind him, sending blood flting as one hit an artery. But Rikou wasn't finished.

His own weapon, the giant spear, also tore through the smoke, heading right towards him at an amazing speed and power. He winced further as it embedded itself a fott into the wall, an inch below his body, right between his legs. Rikou suddenly appeared, crouching on the spear shaft and looking him in the eye as he began to slip away.

"You know nothing of pain," she hissed, clutching her stomach with one hand, wincing. She raised her other hand, moving it behind his jaw, below his ear, right on the pressure point.

"Here's a taste," she muttered, suddenly jabbing two of her fingers as hard as she could into the pressure point. Harder, harder, deeper in, until the Grass-nin began to yell and scream, his eyes watering as she dug her fingers in deeper.

"Stop it!!!" he cried out as she crouched on his own weapon, inches from his face. "P-please!!! I..."

She dug her fingers in as hard as she possibly coud, her fingernails drawig a trace amount of blood as she twisted it cruelly, cutting him off as he yelled louder.

"I forfeit!!!!""

She released her hold on him, falling back to the ground and stumbling up, staggering back a bit and clutching her stomach with both hands and coughing lightly. Hayate dashed forwards with the medical team, unpinning the Grass-nin from the wall as they caught him and placed him on a stretcher and checking his vital signs. They lifted the stretcher as Hayate stepped forwards.

"Tsuta Kuzu has forfeit this match, making the winner Gekkou Rikou!"

Rikou swallowed hard, trying not to throw up. She hadn't been hit so hard for a very long time, and her body was in shock. Hayate stepped forwards. "Did that make you...?"

Rikou collapsed and started coughing violently, she had used too much chakra too quickly, and her body was also not used to that. In fact, she hadn't trained in a while, and her muscled were not as developed as they used to be. Hayate stood, motioning to one of the medical-nin on the other side of the arena.

"Umm... can you please bring out Doctor Terasu?" he called out. The medical-nin nodded, disappearing. Rikou managed to stifle her coughs, and speak up.

"I'm fine, Hayate-chan, it's not a full attack," she said, trying to avoid what she knew was coming.

"It doesn't matter, if it has enough time to develop, it could kill you. Remember what dad said. He told you that even the smallest attack can devestate your body. If you leave it untreated, and your heart rate and breathing slow too much, you'll die. And you're not supposed to die before me, 'kay?"

"But I don't want-"

Rikou was cut off as she heard the door to the arena slam open as three medical-nin stepped in, all of which she knew well. All Gekkou's knew these three. She bit her lip nervously as they made their way towards her.

The one in the middle, Doctor Terasu, was Rikou's personal medical-nin, a highly specialized shinobi with incredible abilities. She specialized in rare diseases and sicknesses, and near-fatal injuries, and was the only one who knew how to treat Rikou's sickness. Rikou had a slightly different illness than the other Gekkou's, one that was less visible on the outside, but was more devastating on the inside.

To her left, walked her personal assistant, Shijin, who was a very talented young medical-nin with a bloodline that allowed him to control other peoples chakra flow, which was useful in his career. On the other side of Doctor Terasu walked another young man, Doctor Tarasu's apprentice, who watched everything she did, which annoyed Rikou.

"Please move, Hayate," said Doctor Terasu quietly. Rikou felt vulnerable as her older brother moved out of the way, allowing the doctor a clear path towards her.

Doctor Terasu knelt down beside her and opened a small, blck case, revealing a number of needles, syringes, bottles, tweezers, clamps and measuring devices. She swallowed hard.

"Please make this easy for us this time, Rikou," said the doctor, looking her in the eye and not yet moving to pick up any of the intruments. There was a puff of smoke as team two and her sensei appeared beside her. She looked around her, there were seven people crowding around her, and she was starting to draw the onlooker's attention.

"I'm fine, there's nothing wrong with me," she argued, her voice quiet. The doctor shook her head, removing a flask of water from beside her and opening a bottle of pills, pulling out three.

"Take these," she ordered. Rikou eyed her suspiciously before swallowing the three pills and handing the flask back to her.

"Can I go now?" she asked. But the doctor wasn't done.

"Now, Rikou..." she began, pulling out a small bottle of liquid.

"I just need to do two more things, so..." she removed a large syringe from a small case, holding it up in the light. But that was it, Rikou was out of there. She stood quickly, regaining her balance and dashing past her sensei. She suddenly ran into something solid, and it grabbed her arm tightly. Looking up, she saw the face of Doctor Terasu's assistant, Shijin. He grabbed her other arm and turning her around to face the rest of the crowd. She dropped her head in embarrassment as she saw Ken and Kirema staring at her in confusion. The doctor stepped forwards, squirting out a small amount of the pale green liquid to remaove any air before approaching her.

"Please..." she begged, her body going limp in Shijin's arms. "Don't..."

"You're afraid of a needle?" asked Kirema, cocking an eyebrow. But instead of having to answer the question herself, Doctor Terasu answered it for her.

"It's not the needle that she hates, it's what comes after," she said, moving over to her and rolling up the sleeve of her left arm. The needle hovered for a moment as she found a vein and injected the pale green liquid into her body. Ken, Kirema and Kanzu looked on in horror as each mark on her skin, every scar, began to burn black,, crawling up from her arm and spreading to the rest of her body.

Shijin let her go and she slumped forwards slightly.

"Please, Rikou. Just get it over with, it's coming no matter what you do," said the medical-nin, clipping the end of the needle and replacing it in a small container in the black box and closing the lid. Rikou sighed.

"Fine, I give up, you win. Again."

She slowly reached up and unbuttoned her dirtied trenchcoat, slipping it off her shoulders and revealing her scarred back and shoulders, now burning black. An odd pattern of black markings had formed where there were no scars visible, forming a small series of circles.

The doctor reached forwards, rolling up the sleeve of her black t-shirt and revealing a dark red tatoo of a crow, which she placed her hand over. Shijin placed his hand over the series of circles, and they began to run their chakra through her body.

Rikou felt pain erupt through her body, searing through her lungs and across her heart, speeding them back up to their normal pace. She wouldn't cry out, not in front of her team mates, so she instead bit her lip, grinding her teeth and closing her eyes as she felt her stomach churn uncomfortably. A moment later, it was finished.

"Done. That-"

"-'wasn't so hard was it?'" finished Rikou, as if she had hear it a thousand times before. "Well, it was."

The doctor stood, smiling slightly at Rikou's predictable reaction. She carefully checked her black box, lifting it as she stood and turned.

"Well, congrudulations on passing, Rikou. Good luck in the third exam, I'll be watching as well," she said pleasantly as she walked away, back towards the door. _How embarrasing_, thought Rikou, making a disgusted face as she rubbed her shoulder.

"Rikou, you will go back with your team, there is a two week waiting period until the next exam, so you should use it to train, alright? I'm going on a mission, so I'll see you in a week." Hayate coughed lightly as he also vanished, leaving her with her team again.

Rikou took a deep breath and lifted herself from the ground, her head throbbing painfully.

"Let's go, Rikou," said Kanzu, turning as well. Rikou walked over to the wall and lifted her silver kamas, replacing them inside her trenchcoat. She glanced down at her other pair, before walking away, leaving them behind. They were broken, she no longer had use for them.

"Are we leaving right away?" asked Ken, facing their sensei. A serious look crossed his face for a moment, before he answered.

"Yes, we should get going, we can make it there by nightfall."

_He's still hiding something_, thought Rikou as she fell into step beside Ken, heading towards the arena doors. _Something is wrong around here..._


	7. 7

"I'm taking these two to have a celebration dinner, you sure you don't want to come along?" asked Kanzu as the four walked down the street. The sun had began to set, staining the rofftops red.

"It's fine, Kanzu-sensei, I want to go home anyways," she replied, kicking a rock in her path.

"We'll walk you home then," he said. Rikou walked along in silence for a moment.

"Sorry about that thing at the arena... I lost my temper," she said, looking down at the dirt as it passed beneath her.

"Nevermind," said her sensei, dismissing it with a wave of his hand. She smiled slightly. Kanzu was the youngest jounin-sensei in Konoha at the time, and he was one of the easiest to get along with. He never really forced them to do anything, he always rewarded them with treats, and he rarely got angry at anyone.

They turned down the street that led to her house, a medium-sized, plain-looking, unpainted house on the edge of the village. Rikou looked up from the ground, suddenly stopping. Kanzu, Ken and Kirema walked a few steps past her before pausing and turning back to her.

"What is it?" asked Kanzu. Rikou was looking at the roof of her house, where a small group of crows were gathered in silence. No, not a small group. She looked in the trees, the ground, the small, broken fence finding them all covered in crows, all silent accept for an occasional caw.

"Somethings wrong," she stated simply. Kanzu turned back to her house, seeing all of the crows gathered there.

"It's just a bunch of birds," he said.

"No, really. Something is very wrong," she said again, stepping back.

"C'mon, Rikou, hurry up," said Kirema, stepping forwards. But Kanzu stopped him.

"Actually, it is odd for there to be this many crows in one place. And you should trust Rikou's senses, she's hardly ever wrong."

Rikou stepped slightly forward and pursed her lips, making a high-pitched whistle. As if one animal, the tens of crows suddenly took flight, cawing loudly and circling once before landing. One crow remained hovering for a moment before gliding towards her as she held up her hand.

She gently stroked the black bird, noticing how it shivered slightly every once and a while, whispering to it softly. It let out a short, low croak before taking flight, back to the group of crows.

"I don't want to go in there," she stated, pulling her trenchcoat around her closely.

"Is your dad home?" asked Kanzu, turning back to the house.

"He should be," she replied. There was a moment of silence before Kanzu stepped forwards.

"Give me your key and I'll go in first, okay?" he asked. She nodded and pulled out her keychain. There were three keys on it, one for her front door, one for her back door, and one that she had no clue what it was for, she had simply picked it up off the ground one day and had never bothered to take it off.

But before Kanzu could take a single step towards the house, the flock of crows suddenly took flight, vanishing in a matter of seconds. There was a soft, but audible, thud from inside and the doorknob turned, revealing something Rikou had hoped she would never have to see again.

"Akatsuki!" she hissed, whipping out her kamas and flipping back into a crouch. The two figures paused in the doorway as Kanzu placed himself between them and the three gennin.

"You three, go and get the other jounin, right now! Run," hissed Kanzu, falling into his fighting stance.

Rikou needed no second warning, she was gone in a flash, dashing as fast as she could through the streets. Looking behind her, she saw now Ken or Kirema following behind her, but she kept dashing forwards despite their absence.

Flipping up onto a rooftop, she spotted the Hokage's quarters in the distance and began jumping from roof to roof, zig-zagging towards the building. She skidded clumsily off the last rooftop, landing in a sloppy crouch before standing and running up to the doors, bursting through and into the main lobby.

It was empty. She ran through another door, room after room until she ended back in the lobby, finding no one there. Damnit, she thought before bursting outside again and jumping back onto the roof, thinking hard.

She raised her hand to her mouth, biting one of her fingers and feeling no pain, the nerves had been severed during torture. She quickly ran her finger across the tiles of the roof, using as much of her chakra as her body would allow, before calling out "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

A large crow appeared before her, roughly the size of a small dog, hopping lightly on the roof as it cocked it's head towards her.

"You? Where's Hayate? What do you want with me?" The crows voice was harsh and cracked.

"Please, go find the other jounin and chuunin and tell them that the Akatsuki have been seen on the edge of the town, at the Gekkou house. Go," she whispered. The crow paused for a moment, before taking flight, speeding quickly to her left and disappearing. The sun was getting lower in the sky.

She suddenly got another idea. Perhaps Hayate hasn't left yet, she thought, taking a deep breath. She dashed across the rooftops, heding into the center of the village until she came across a small apartment. She opened the door and ran up the stairs, dashing down a hall until she reached a door numbered 206 and banging hard on it. _Please, Hayate! Please be here!!_

She ended her punding with a single, particulary hard thud before slumping to the floor in exaughstion. She heard a cough from inside and looked up as the doorknob rattled and the door opened, revealing Hayate in Anbu uniform.

"-Rikou?" he said, confused. She stood again.

"Hayate! I just got back from the exam, and we went back to my house but there were crows on the roof and the one that stays with us was all jumpy so I knew something was wrong and then the door opened and there were two Akatsuki-"

"What!? Akatsuki!?" he hissed, narrowing his dark eyes suspiciously. She nodded.

"Kanzu-sensei told me and Ken and Kirema to get the other Jounin, but I couldn't find any so I came here. But..."

"What?"

"But when I was running, Ken and Kirema weren't following me. I... I think they're still with Kanzu-sensei," she said.

"Shit," he said angrily. She had only heard him swear once before, and he had been really angry.

"Rikou, I want you to get inside and lock the door. I'm going to go get the others, so wait here until I come and get you, alright?"

Rikou nodded, stepping into his apartment. He followed her in and strapped on his ninja-to, grabbing his Anbu mask and gaving her a quick hug before disappearing, leaving her alone again.

Rikou looked at the place where he had been moments before, eventually stepping forwards and closing the door, locking it and turning on the lights.

Hayate's apartment was fairly small, and every foot was crowded, full of many different things. On one wall was a number of swords, mostly ninja-to's but there was also a katana which was inticately designed. He had a small bed in one side f the room near a window, the table beside the bed was lined with framed pictures, some of family, some of friends, one of him as a sensei with his gennin team, and one of him as a gennin on his team.

She stepped over towards the window, looking out at the still town as the sun lingered only a few inches over the horizon. A moment later, it set completely, leaving the world in a purplish-blue haze. She slumped down onto the bed, placing her hands over her face and closing her eyes.

A moment later, she was completely asleep, curled up in a small ball under the covers, her trenchcoat hanging over the edge as the sky darkened completely, blanketing the world in darkness again.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rikou woke to the sound of quiet knocking on the door, pulling her tired and aching body out from under the covers, stumbling over to the door and unlocking it. Hayate, still in uniform, stepped in, rubbing his face. He looked extremely worn out, the dark bags under his eyes considerably larger and his eyes bloodshot.

"It's over," he said quietly, flopping back on the bed and coughing lightly.

"What happened?" she asked, suddenly awake. Hayate sighed and sat up.

"We found Kanzu passed out in the forest, he had somehow ended up there, and chased the two Akatsuki for most of the night until we lost the trail. Ken and Kirema had been trapped in a genjutsu with minor injuries, but all three are fine now in the hospital. You're lucky to have escaped so easily, even the jounins had trouble dealing with them."

"They're in the hospital!?"

"That's not all... Umm..."

"What is it?" she asked, moving towards the bed slowly.

"Umm... they found Dad inside the house as well..."

Rikou swallowed, hoping he wasn't going to say what she knew he would.

"They murdered him," he said quietly.

Rikou slumped down on the bed next to him, staring down at the floor for a moment.

"What...? Why...?"

Rikou bit her tongue to avoid showing emotion, her breaths slowing down, but it came anyways. Her eyes welled up with tears slowly, overflowing and rolling down her cheeks, dripping off her chin and splashing onto her lap as she lowered her head. She wiped them away slowly, trying to prevent any more from falling. Hayate shifted uncomfortably, she knew he wasn't good around other people.

"... It's alright, Rikou-chan. He only had a few more months anyways..."

"But why him? Out of all the people in Konoha, why'd he have to die?"

"... Umm... Well... you're actually lucky, the Akatsuki came here because they were after you..."

Rikou sniffled quietly, wiping away another tear as it tried to trace the same path down her pale cheek.

"I don't get it..."

Rikou sat in silence for a moment, lost in thoughts. She stood numbly, moving towards the door.

"I'm going to go now.... I think I'll go see Kirema and Ken..."

Before Hayate could say anything, she had already hurried out the door, closing it behind her and leaning against it for a moment and taking a deep breath before moving down the hall, tears flowing down her cheeks again. She slowly descended the stairs to the first floor, pushing the door open slowly and stepping into the daylight, blinking slightly at the change in lighting as she stepped outside. She turned towards the hospital, hands in her pockets as she shuffled through the busy streets, between throngs of people.

She kept her eyes on the ground, her hair hanging in her face, as she slowly approached the hospital doors, pausing before them and gazing absent-mindedly at the people going in and out. She stood there for a few moments before pushing into the lobby and walking up to the dest, waiting in silence until the secretary noticed her.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

Rikou stared at her a for a moment, before answering quietly. "Can you please tell me which room Hisui Kanzu is in?"

The secretary nodded, turning to a stack of paper and flipping through it, searching for a moment before turning back to her.

"Room 127, upstairs and down the hall on your left," she said pleasantly, smiling at her. Rikou did not smile back, instead turning away silently and shuffling towards the stairs. She had been in the hospital many times before, she often had 'treatment' sessions with her doctor that could last anywhere from a few minutes to a few days.

She turned down the hall, turning her head slightly to read the numbers as she passed them until she reached room 127, pushing open the door and stepping inside.

Kanzu was asleep in the bed, various machines hooked up to him along with a heart-rate moniter. His brown hair hung in his face, obscuring it almost completely, His head was heavily bandaged along with the rest of his upper body and arms. Rikou sat down beside his bed in a visitor's chair, pulling her knees up to her chin and burying her face in her arms, sitting in silence and listening to the beeping machines.

"At least you made it, Kanzu-sensei... I'm sorry I wasn't faster..."

She sat there for most of the afternoon, staring at her sensei, out the window or at one of the walls, lost in thought. At around five, the door to the room opened and her team mates walked in again, pausing at the door.

"Rikou! You're alright! They wouldn't tell us what happened to you," said Ken happily, flopping into another chair. She said nothing, glancing up at them for a moment before dropping it again.

"Kanzu-sensei overdid it I think... He fought for most of the night. Me and Ken got trapped in Genjutsu and couldn't move for a long time, but he managed to keep them away from us. We didn't know whether or not you made it back, and we only just got out of our rooms," said Kirema, falling back into another chair. Rikou remained silent.

"Why are you so quiet?" asked Ken, glancing over at her. He noticed her tear-stained cheeks.

"Rikou? What's wrong? What happened...?"

Rikou stood, she didn't want to talk about anything at the moment. She slumped over to the door, her hands in her pockets and her head hanging again, opening the door and stepping out without even saying goodbye.

She exited the hospital, making her way back to her house, wondering if she really wanted to go there. She turned down her street just as the sun began to set. She walked slowly up the stairs as a crow landed on her shoulder, the same one she had called yesterday. She pushed gently on the door and it opened easily, not making the slightest noise as she entered the house, the crow croaking gently.

The house seemed so empty and silent, and the air was unusually cold. She stepped into the kitchen, looking around cautiously. Moving into the living room, she opened the drapes, letting in a few rays of sunlight and turning around. She froze.

The wall opposite her had been smeared with red, now dried brown, blood, the writing dripping down the wall and forming muddy-red puddles on the floor. The crow on her shoulder croaked and flew to the window sill.

_Physical pain is nothing. Welcome to Hell._

She swallowed hard as she read the message again and again, the words registering numbly in the back of her mind. Something glinted and caught her eye as she turned to better see what it was. She moved forward and knelt down, picking it up and examining it closely. It was a key, small and intricately designed._ Wait... _she thought. _This looks exactly like my key._

"Dad..." She moved over to the couch, suddenly tired again, flopping back on it and curling up. She felt something pressing against her shirt and pulled it out, letting the deep red jewel catch the sunlight, sending red rays of light dancing across the walls. Kankuro...

She held it close to her as she drifted off to sleep again, thinking about the new turn her life was taking. The last thing her striking green eyes fell upon were the words smeared across the wall, and she shivered before closing them again, her mind invaded by darkness.


	8. 8

Rikou lay on the couch, listening to the pounding on the door.

"Please, Rikou. Open the door... It's been a week, at least come out and eat something!"

She listened to Kankuro's voice echo through the empty house and glanced up at the writing on the wall.

"Go away," she said quietly. She heard a sigh from the other side of the door. He had come here almost every day so far, trying to persuede her to come out of the house. Even Hayate had come to try to get her out, but had left after awhile to finish his mission.

"Please, Rikou?"

She closed her eyes, curling up tighter before sliding slowly off the bed, placing her feet lightly on the dusty floor and standing. She moved over to the window beside the door, opening the curtains and looking out at Kankuro.

"Please leave me alone, Kankuro," she said quietly. He turned towards the window, stepping towards that instead.

"Rikou... you can't stay in there forever, so just come out now. We can go and get something to eat, alright?"

Rikou let the curtain fall back over the window, turning towards the stairs and heading up to her room. She opened the closet and pulled out some new, clean clothes. She slipped off her old clothes and put on the new ones, adjusting a black trenchcoat.

She moved into the bathroom, looking in the mirror and slipping off her headband, brushing her hair quickly before replacing it. Her hair hung over the Leaf symbol, obscuring most of the green of her eyes. She looked at her reflection, her skin was unusually pale, she had small bags under her eyes and she looked incredibly depressed. She grabbed a pair of black gloves, slipping them on and descending the stairs.

"Are you listening, Rikou?"

She heard Kankuro sigh in frustration as he turned away, but another voice came through the door.

"What are you doing here, Sand-nin?"

Rikou pressed her ear against the door, recognizing it as Kirema's voice.

"Why do you want to know?"

Kankuro, don't pick a fight with him, she thought as she listened.

"I thought we told you to stay away from her," came Kirema's voice again.

"What are you going to do about it?"

"Idiot, don't pick a fight with us, it's two on one," came Ken's voice. Ken's here too?

"Hahaha.... I don't care how many there are. I could easily beat all of you," said Kankuro, his voice raised slightly.

"Wanna bet?"

Rikou opened the door, breaking their conversation and avoiding a confrontation. She opened the door more, stepping out of the house slowly.

"Stop it."

The three ninja broke apart their staring competition, turning towards her.

"Rikou," said Kankuro. She turned to him, her green eyes boring into his.

"I told you to leave me alone. I don't want to talk to anybody."

She brushed past the three shinobi turning away as she left. Hayate had come to tell her that her father's funeral was going to be on wednesday, but she hadn't gone, so now she was heading for the memorial, where they had decided to place his name.

There were no other people at the memorial fortunately. She stood silently at the memorial for a few minutes, before she heard someone approaching behind her.

"Go away," she said quietly.

"Please, Rikou," urged Kankuro, stepping up beside her. She didn't turn her head, instead keeping her yes rivited on the words written most recently on the stone. Gekkou Shouri.

Kankuro moved towards her slightly, gently taking hold of her hand. She tried to pull away as he pulled her closer into a hug. She pushed against his chest for only a moment before giving up and letting her body press into his, letting out a shuddering breath as the tears came again, puring silently down her cheeks. She pressed herself into his chest and let her tears soak into his black outfit as she dug her fingernails into his chest.

"Why did this have to happen now?" she whispered, choking back tears. "Why now? In the middle of the exam?"

"Shhh..." Kankuro gently pushed her away from him, holding her an arm's length away.

"Let's go get some food, alright? It'll make you feel better," he said. She nodded, holding onto his arm as he led her away from the memorial. They picked their way through the town towards the Ramen stand, finding it empty and taking the two seats on the end. Kankuro ordered two large bowls of ramen which were placed in front of them.

"Thanks," said Rikou, picking up the pair of chopsticks and playing with a piece of steaming noodle before starting to eat it. She felt a weight around her neck and lifted the red jewel on the end of her necklace.

"Kankuro... Where did this necklace come from anyways?" she asked quietly, not sure why she was asking in the first place. Kankuro put down his chopsticks.

"I'm not sure. It's said that the first or second Kage of each of the five countries had one of these necklaces, one for Fire, Wind, Earth, Water and Lightning and that they each posessed a different power. This used to belong to the second Kazekage, but it was eventually passed down to me."

Rikou paused before tucking it back into her trenchcoat. "Then... Isn't it like part of your country? Shouldn't it stay there?"

Kankuro turned back to his ramen, poking at it. "Yeah, I guess, but I wanted to give it to you..."

Rikou finished the rest of her ramen quickly and Kankuro payed for them both before they left again, wandering off into the afternoon. In the distance, Rikou spotted Ken and Kirema speaking with someone.

"I think I should go now," she said quietly. Kankuro nodded and she quickly brushed passed him without saying goodbye, making her way towards the three figures.

"...Kanzu-sensei?" she asked as she approached the group. He turned towards her, his arms still heavily bandaged. He smiled at her.

"Hey, Rikou," he said. "We were just going to go train for the third exam, are you going to come?"

Rikou thought about it for a moment before answering. "...I'll meet you at our training field in a few minutes. I need to get something first."

"Really!?" asked Ken, amazed that she was agreeing. She didn't anwer, instead heading back to the center of the village towards her brother's house.

She pushed through the doors, heading up the stairs and turning towards his door, digging under the mat where she knew a spare key was hidden and unlocking the door. She stepped into the empty apartment, moving over to the wall and grabbing one of her brother's ninja-to's before heading out again.

She crossed the town, heading for their normal training field and looking around, eventually spotting Ken and Kirema training with eachother, fighting. She shifted slightly, moving the ninja-to over her shoulder and strapping it there. She spotted Kanzu sitting at the side and watching them. He shifted as she approached, turning to face her.

"Are you practicing the dances?"

She nodded in silence, moving past him towards a few of the tree stumps. She thought for a moment, trying to decide which to practice.

"Which one?" asked her sensei, as if reading her thoughts.

"I don't know," she replied quietly, thinking harder. Mikazuki no Mai, the dance of the Crescent Moon was a bit above her level and required alot of talent, so she immidiatley omitted that one. After a moment of thinking, she narrowed it down to either Tsukikage no mai or Seishuku no mai, the Moonshadow dance or the dance of Constellations.

She set herself up in her fighting stance, placing her hand on the handle of the ninja-to, drawing it in a single, fluid motion and making a few one handed seals, closing her eyes in concentration.

"Tsukikage no Mai," she said quietly, dashing towards the stump. As her foot connected with a shadow, she felt her body melt into it, sinking into the ground and swallowing up her entire body, although she continued towards the stump. It was easy to move like this, she could move faster than the eye could see between shadows in a complicated dance patters, slashing at the stump from every possible angle.

By the time she ended the jutsu, there were several deep gashes in the stump, splinters of wood lightly covering the ground. She stood from one of the shadows, taking a few deep breaths before sheathing her sword. She leaned up against the shredded stump, folding her arms and closing her eyes for a moment.

"Kanzu-sensei?" she asked, still facing away and leaning on the stump.

"What is it?"

"Do I have to participate in the third part? I'm not good enough to win anyways, everyone else is much stronger than I am."

She listened to the sound of Ken and Kirema training as her sensei thought for a moment.

"Nobody's forcing you to, but you have a good chance of passing. You're not as weak as you say you are, you just beat up on yourself too much. Remember, when your team was caught and forced to fight after your sensei was killed, you were the only one who managed to survive, the only one who was stong enough to avoid death."

"Yeah, but I was still captured and tortured... And it was my decision that got them killed anyways. I never used to rely on my instincts before, and it almost got me killed. I'm still as weak and flawed as I was before."

Kanzu sighed, running his hand through his hair and closing his eyes for a moment. "You're so difficult, Rikou. You always have an excuse ready, always know how to talk your way through things. That's why you should take the exam."

Rikou opened her eyes, shifting slightly. "Why? How will that help me?"

"Hehe... You have the brains to get yourself through anything. You notice thing no one else can, you can come up with great strategies, you have great instincts and senses... If you used those in battle, instead of running away, you would be a difficult kunoichi to beat."

"So what? It won't matter, 'cause I can barely will my body to stay in a battle. The first thought that runs through my mind in battle is run. The only things I have going for me is the five dances that I don't even fully know and my shadow clones. I can run, I can steal, I can come up with plans, sure. But I can't fight, I can't defend my team, I can't take even a small amount of pain, and I can't fight a battle to the end. If I wasn't so good at running away, then I'd be dead by now."

There was a moment of silence as she waited for Kanzu's response. He sighed again. "See what I mean? Excuses, you never run out do you?"

Rikou closed her eyes again. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You word it so that it sounds horrible, so that it makes you look bad. But when you think about it, you're just as good as those two. Look, Ken has only his sword and his few genjutsu, he wants to become a medical-nin because he says battle doesn't suit him. If you were him, you would make those few points into an essay that you would use to beat up on yourself. Even Kirema has flaws, he is evenly talented in all aspects of ninjutsu, but he cannot think clearly in battle, and in life-threatening circumstances, he chokes because all he can think about is the welfare of himself and his comrades. No ones perfect."

"... So you think I can get past the exam?"

"Of course."

Rikou sighed, thinking over their discussion. "But there's no point," she said simply.

"What do you mean?"

"There's no point in me becoming a chuunin. I only have five more years. What's the point of becoming a chuunin?"

"That's just another of your excuses, Rikou."

Rikou opened her eyes in shock. "An excuse?"

"Yes. Tell me, why did you join the acadamy in the first place?"

Rikou thought back to when she had been little, thinking hard for a reason. "Because I wanted to be able to protect others..."

"So, if you give up now, then wouldn't that make everything else that you've accomplished so far pointless? If you don't keep fighting, what would happen if something went wrong and you were unable to protect those around you?"

"... I don't know..."

"Everyone has to have something to look forwards to, a dream, a goal in life. Every ninja has to have something important to protect, otherwise there is no meaning behind their fighting, it becomes pointless. If I remember correctly, when you first joined this team, you never answered any of our questions. You never told us your likes or dislikes, your dreams, you skipped everything with a simple 'pass.' That means that for all these years, you have basically had no meaning in your life, but if you had no meaning then you wouldn't be here, would you? So what is your meaning, your reson to keep fighting? Why don't you just give up now?"

Rikou dropped her eyes to the ground, thinking hard. "...I don't know..."

"Yes, you do."

She closed her eyes, searching for a reason. She coughed quietly. "I'm not sure right now... before I thought it was to protect others, but now the ones I wanted to protect are all gone, all dead..."

Kanzu smiled slightly. "So your reason is still to protect them. There are still people to protect, on top of serving Konoha. You have to watch out for those two, Ken and Kirema, they can't take care of themselves. As long as you have a team, you have something to fight for."

Rikou sighed again, her head pounding as she went over what her sensei was saying. "I'm not sure... I should know, one decision can ruin everything. If I make the wrong one, it can ruin my life... but I suppose I should take the rest of the exam, at least for dad..."

"Good choice," said her sensei, smiling again. But he suddenly turned his head as a person approached the clearing, a woman with deep purplish hair. Rikou turned, peeking around the stump and recognizing it as Hayate's friend.

"Seiten-san?" she said, stepping out from behind the tree to better see the kunoichi. Her eyes were red and her cheeks were slightly moist from crying. "Are you alright?"

She stepped fully out from behind the shredded stump, out into the open. Ken and Kirema lay panting heavily against a nearby tree as they watched the jounin approach Rikou.

"R-Rikou-chan..." stuttered the jounin, stepping towards her, new tears running down her cheeks. She grabbed onto Rikou's shoulders before pulling her into a hug.

"I'm sorry... They told me to tell you, but I'm not sure how to..."

Rikou swallowed, unsure what Seitan was speaking of. "What are you talking about?"

"...They found your brother this morning on a rooftop.... He's..."

Rikou froze. "What!?"

'I'm so sorry, Rikou-chan..."

Rikou loosened up a bit, _this is just a bad joke, _she thought, laughing slightly. "What are you talking about, Seiten?"

The jounin held her slightly apart from her, her eyes alone telling her she wasn't joking. "They found him dead on the rooftop..." Rikou froze again, starting to shiver slightly.

"No...no...no no nononono...." Rikou began shaking uncontrollably, falling to the ground, her words melting into a low, continuous moan. "It...It's not possible... Not now.. Dad just... Not now..."

She burst out into tears, grabbing the sides of her head and rocking slowly back and forth, her eyes wide. _It's just a bad dream, _she thought_, no one could be this unlucky..._

"Rikou..." The jounin reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, but she suddenly slapped it away, standing and dropping her hands.

"He-he can't... Hayate..." she backed against the stump, pressing her body into it and hoping to just melt away as she looked out at her team and the kunoichi in front of her. She closed her eyes, breaths coming in short gasps as words painted themselves into the back of her mind, burning as the writing bled down, cutting through her thoughts.

_Physical pain is nothing. Welcome to hell._

Rikou suddenly pushed off the stump, pausing for a moment before dashing into the forest. She felt someone grabe her arm and spun around angrily.

"Don't touch me!" she snarled, tearing her arm away from the jounin as she ran into the trees, dashing blindly past the foliage without knowing or caring where she was going.

She was blinded by tears as she tore as fast as she could through the forest, the branches whipping cruelly across her face, catching on her trenchcoat and becoming tangled in her hair, but she didn't care. Her head pounded with lack of oxygen as she slowed slgihtly, but still forcing her body to move, anywhere she could run to that was far away from the village.

She caught her breath for a moment, choking on her tears before standing again and running further into the forest. She paused again at the base of a tall tree, falling against it and gasping for air as more tears leaking down her cheeks, splashing on the ground. She felt so completely hopeless, so helpless, her eyes simply decided to close up. Her body began to shut down from exaughstion, her lungs striving for oxygen, her heart pumping hard, her brain slowing and stopping, her body going numb. She pulled her knees up to her chest, curling up as small as she could before squeezing her eyes shut.

_Maybe...Maybe if I just go to sleep, this will just be fixed in the morning. This... This must be a bad dream, just a nightmare..._

She choked back more tears as she slipped away, curling up tighter and pressing herself further into the bark of the tree. A moment later, she fell back into real nightmares, burning through her mind as more tears fell.

_Physical pain is nothing. Welcome to Hell._


	9. 9

"Hayate," she whispered, rocking back and forth, her eyes wide but unseeing.

She remembered how many days she had spent with him as he taught her the five dances. She had never eally paid much attention to his lessons, but he was patient and she had eventually begun to learn them.

"Hayate," she whispered again.

When the Sand had brought her back after rescuing her from the Akatsuki, he had been out, looking for her. They told her he had been out every free day he had, constantly searching for her. He was the only person who thought she was still alive, the only one who hadn't givin up on her. When he came back on the weekend to find her at her father's house, he had almost passed out. The doctors said that his efforts had taken almost a year off of his life, that he had spent too much energy over the space of a year, over-working his body just to look for her.

"Hayate..."

He had been the one to teach her the forbidden Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

"Hayate..."

He had been the one to encourage her to continue her training to become a better ninja.

"Hayate..."

He had visited her every day whenever she was in the hospital for treatment.

"Hayate..."

He_ had _been. He _used_ to be. He _was_. Rikou curled up tighter. _Past-tense_, had, used to, was. He was gone now. She had been out here for two days, curled up in approximately the same spot, her stomach growling loudly every once and a while as she remained curled up against the same tree.

Get up, she thought mildly. I need to get up.

The sun had set hours ago, and it was almost midnight, meaning she had almost been here for three days. She shifted her legs slightly, her head throbbing. She had been crying for the whole time she had sat there, and now her eyes and throat hurt. Her lips were dry and cracked, the scratches from the branches when she had run there had scabbed over, the blood drying on her face when the tears had run out.

She moved her legs more, shaking as she pushed her dehydrated and energy-deficient body up, leaning on the tree for support as she looked back the way she had come, the branches snapped and showing her the path.

Taking a step forwards and leaving her support, stumbling forwards and back towards Konoha. They didn't even send out someone to look for me, she thought as she stumbled through the darkness. There were two days until the third exam. After a few moments of blind stumbling, she removed the ninja-to from across her back, using it for support as she trudged forwards.

She stumbled on erractically for hours, until the sky lightened, the sun slowly rising and lighting the world once more. The soft sound of chirping birds reached her ears as she continued towards the village, doing nothing to raise her spirits. She slumped to the ground after awhile, catching her breath.

There was a rustling nearby, and her head spun around. She drew her ninja-to, suddenly alert as the noise came again.

"Who's there?" she croaked out, her voice cracked and scratchy.

"Rikou!?"

Kanzu stepped from the trees to her left, another jounin at his side. His face was pale and the bandages around his arms had been removed. He stepped forwards, kneeling down and hugging her, sighing.

"Geez, don't run off like that, Rikou. We spent every day looking for you."

Rikou said nothing, her throat to dry to force out any more words. She sheathed her sword with shaking hands and Kanzu slipped his arms under her, lifting her easily.

"Let's go," he said to the other jounin, who nodded. Rikou slipped away as her sensei carried her back to the village, his strong legs pumping hard as they dashed past the trees at an amazing speed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rikou opened her eyes slowly, glancing around the hospital room she was in. She felt so tired...

"Rikou?" came Kankuro's voice. She glanced to her left, where he sat alone in one of two chair.

"Kankuro..." Her voice was still dry and cracked. She swallowed.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded slightly, pushing herself up and gazing at him absent-mindedly. Her mind suddenly snapped back to reality as she remembered.

"How many days until the exam...?"

"It's tomorrow," he said. He shifted slightly, glancing aside for a moment.

"What's wrong?" she asked quietly.

"...It's nothing," he said, turning back to her. "Just... I don't want anything to happen to you... something is happening and I don't want you to get caught in it..."

"What are you talking about?"

Kankuro shifted nervously again, before standing. "Nevermind... I have to go and fix up the Karasu."

Rikou watched as he turned and walked quietly out of the room, wondering what was going on. She looked out the window, her heart jumping. The sun was setting, the exam was tomorrow. She looked down at her arm and noticed an I.V. drip taped to the underside.

Lifting her other hand, she gently removed the tape, cautiously poking it to see if it hurt before slowly sliding it out. She rubbed her arm for a moment before pulling away the covers, timidly placing her feet on the floor and standing. She noticed she wasn't wearing her trenchcoat, but as she cast around, she spotted it folded neatly on one of the chairs along with her ninja-to.

After grabbing the sword and replacing her trenchcoat, she slipped out the door, leaving the hospital after checking out, heading back to her house. There was a single crow sitting on the roof, the same one that was usually there, and she headed up the stairs as it cawed loudly.

The door was still unlocked, so she opened the door easily, removing her shoes as she closed it behind her. She moved into the living room, sitting back on the couch and looking at the writing on the wall as she thought about tomorrow.

_Should I still go? Kanzu-sensei told me I should... But what weapon would I take? My kamas or Hayate's Ninja-to? ...I should take both, these matches won't be easy. I can just hide my kamas inside my coat again. Yeah, that sounds good..._

She fell back onto the couch, stretching out her legs and turning away from the wall. She closed her aching eyes, slipping back into darkness once again.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She woke late the next day, something unusual for her, and glanced up at the clock on the wall. She had an hour until the exam. She quickly slipped off the couch, shuffling up the stairs to her room and pulling out a new black trenchcoat, black tanktop and black pants. She opened a drawer, pulling out her kamas and a full, black weapons pouch.

She carried her suplies over to the spotless washroom across the hall, stepping into the shower for a moment and letting the hot water burn across her skin soothingly before stepping back out and getting into her new outfit.

She looked in the mirror as she picked up her hair brush, quickly drying her hair and brushing it quickly. When it was wet, it came down to her shoulders, curling elegantly under her chin. She wrapped her weapon around her body, tucking the actual blade part under her armpits before slipping on her trenchcoat.

She moved back downstairs, strapping on her brother's ninja-to and glancing up at the clock, gasping. She had five minutes to get there.

Rikou was out the door in a flash, slamming it quickly behind her. The ever-present crow flew to her shoulder as she sped through the streets towards the stadium. The town was unusually busy today, many people lining the streets and slowing her down further.

The crow croaked softly on her shoulder as she approached the stadium, out of breath. She fell into a walk as she entered, the crow shifting slightly as it looked around at the large crowd in the stands. Rikou hung her head to avoid looking at anyone, her trenchcoat blowing behind her as she moved towards the assembled gennin, who were all facing away, and fell into place beside Ken.

"Rikou!? You came!" he said happily, smiling at her. She said nothing, instead looking up at the new examiner.

They remained facing the crowd for a few minutes until the Hokage stood and the stadium went silent. He cleared his throat, moving towards the railing as he adressed them.

"Thaks to everyone who came to the Hidden Leaf's Chuunin Selection Exam! We will now begin the main tournament matches between the eleven participants who made it through the preliminaries, so please stay until the end!"

The examiner held up a sheet of paper that showed the match pairings in a chart, holing it up for all the gennin to see clearly. Rikou scanned it a few times.

First match was Uzumaki Naruto versus Hyuga Neji. Second match was Uchiha Sasuke versus Gaara. Third match was Aburame Shino versus Kankuro. Fourth match was Gekkou Rikou versus Hikari Ken. Fifth match was Temari versus Nara Shikamaru. Kirema was the odd man out. Rikou turned to Ken in silence, examining his expression as he read the chart.

"Oh shit," he muttered, looking over at her. She blinked a few times.

"I'm fighting you," she stated simply.

"Damnit, why me? Where's that other guy, the Sound guy?" hissed Kirema. "Why am I the odd one out!?"

There were scattered mutterings as the other gennin finished reading the chart as well, and the jounin, Genma, replaced it. He turned to face them as everyone, except Rikou, looked up, listening to their cheering.

"In this main tournament," said Genma, adressing them. "You guys are the stars."

"Hey! Hey!" shouted Naruto, waving his hand in the air.

"What?" asked Genma, his eyes half-closed. He had a long toothpick in his mouth which he bobbed up and down every once and a while.

"Sasuke isn't here yet, what are you going to do?"

Rikou looked down the row of gennin of which she was at the end of. Sasuke was indeed missing, she remembered him from before, he was almost as dark as her. There was another gennin missing as well, the only Sound-nin who had made it this far, Dosu Kinuta.

'If he doesn't appear by the time his match starts, then he will recieve a default loss," said Genma simply, his toothpick bobbing up and down ad he spoke. It glinted in the sun and Rikou noticed it was not actually a toothpick, but a needle, a senbon needle.

"Alright guys, this is the final test. The arena is different, but the rules are the same as in the prelims, in other words, there are none. You fight until one of you dies or acknowledges defeat. But if I determine that a fight is over, I'll step in and stop it, got that?"

The gennin nodded, the crow on Rikou's shoulder croaking softly. She looked around the arena, noting the different terrain. There were trees and bushes along the edges of the cement walls, some in the middle, and the ground was made of packed dirt, dusty from days of no rain.

"Now for the first match, Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuga Neji. Those two stay here, the rest of you, head to the waiting room," said Genma, his toothpick bobbing annoyingly. She stepped away, following the others towards one of the doors.

Rikou moved up onto a seperate balcony, away from the crowd, an leaned against the wall, not bothering to watch the fight. The crow on her shoulder flew off, landing on the railing and watching the battle between the two Leafs. Rikou sighed, slumping down and sitting on the cold cement, bringing her knees up and burying her face in her arms.

"Aren't you going to watch, Rikou" asked Ken, turning to her.

"Wake me up when it's our turn," she said blandly, her voice quiet. The ninja-to dug into her back uncomfortably, but she didn't care, she was tired. Her smooth, black hair fell loosely over her arms as she drifted off to sleep.

But her sleep lasted for what seemed to her only a few short minutes before she was awoken by the sound of cheering. She moved over to the banister and looked down upon a blonde in an orange suit running around in circles as a number of medical-nin attended to the other boy, the Hyuga. She smiled faintly.

This guy... He sure has alot of energy. As Naruto calmed down and headed up top to rejoin them, she paused. The crow that had come with her was flying in a wide circle over the stadium. She held out her hand, calling it towards her where it landed, cawing loudly.

"What is it?" she asked the black bird. It cawed again, turning towards the stands. She squinted at the people, up past them, behind them, where she saw..

"Anbu? What are they doing here?"

"What? Where?" asked Ken, following her gaze.

So something id going on here, she thought. Why is the security so tight?

The crowd was booing loudly, causing her to turn her gaze back to the jounin, Genma, where he stood looking up at the Hokage and the Kazekage, where they sat watching the tournament. The crowd began yelling at the poor jounin to get on with the next match, it was obviously one they wnted to see.

It was around ten more minutes before anything happened. Another jounin, one Rikou didn't recognize, appeared in a puff of smoke beside Genma, speaking quietly with him for a moment before disappearing again. Are they going to fail him?

"Ladies and gentlemen, the contestant for the next match has not arrived yet, so we are pushing the match back and moving onto the next one," called out Genma from the middle of the arena.

"And now, the next match, Aburame Shino and Kankuro! Come down!"

Rikou looked over towards Kankuro, but was suprised at what she saw. He was glancing around and biting his lip nervously, beads of sweat forming on his forhead as he turned to his sister, Temari. This is...not like him. What's going on?

Kankuro stepped forwards slightly, resting his hands on the railing and calling down the the examiner.

"...I forfeit!"

"What!?" called out Rikou, causing a few of the gennin to look her way. She covered her mouth, stepping back and sitting againt the wall again. What is he doing!?

"... Alright, then the next two contestants please come down!"

Rikou closed her eyes, ready to go back to sleep until she felt Ken shaking her.

"What?"

"It's our turn," he said quietly. She opened her eyes and could see the fear in his eyes, he did not want to fight her. She pushed herself up, the crow flying to her shoulder as she walked beside Ken down to the arena, down the stairs and on to the ground level. There's no way I can beat him, she thought, looking at Ken. But... Kanzu-sensei told me to fight, so I guess I have to...

They stepped out into the sunlight, Rikou blinking a few times as they headed towards the examiner. She stopped a few feet away and Ken continued past her, moving to face her. She held up her hand, letting the crow hop onto it before raising it higher and letting the crow fly off into the sky, back up to the railing. This battle was no place for a bird.

"Are you two ready?" asked the examiner. When he got no reply, he jumped back. "Begin!"


	10. 10

Rikou dashed forwards along with Ken, both drawing their swords as they headed for eachother. They met in the middle, clashing hard and sending sparks flying, bouncing across the dirt, hitting small bits of rock and burning out. Rikou jumped back and took another slash at him, trying to think of a plan.

She didn't want to hurt her team mate, but she also didn't want to lose. She had told her sensei she would try her best to win the exam, and she was going to keep her word this time. They met again, each trying to force the other back, Ken managing to push her further and further back as their swords fought for control. But Ken was much better than her with swords.

He twisted in an odd position, causing her to fall forwards as he kneed her in the stomach before bringing his hand down on the back of her neck, her body slumping to the ground... and turning into a rock.

"Kawarimi!?" he hissed, jumping back.

Rikou jumped out from behind one of the trees, making a complicated series of one-handed seals and shouting "Seishuku no Mai!"

There was a puff of smoke and a clone appeared beside her, dashing forwards towards Ken. Rikou dashed into the trees again, hiding and watching as her clone fought for her. But her clone wasn't a normal clone, she had only recently mastered this dance, and Ken had not yet been up against it.

The clone clashed with Ken, their swords meeting again, but this dance was more complicated. Another blade suddenly shot from the clone's stomach, narrowly missing Ken as he jumped back and the sword melted back into the clone. Ken charged again, but this time the clone fell into a crouch, swords shooting from it's shoulders and elbows as it spun on the ground, catching his foot as he jumped in the air.

Ken isn't fighting seriously, thought Rikou, watching from behind the tree. Ken landed a few feet away and charged the clone again, this time throwing his sword and letting it fly past the five or so swords coming out of the clone's body, piercing it's stomach. There was a puff of smake as the clone disappeared and his katana fell to the ground where he picked it up.

Rikou was about to repeat the jutsu, but was stopped as a bug landed on her hand, biting it annoyingly.

"Huh?"

Another one landed on her hand, followed by another and another until her body was completely covered in the crawling insects, all biting her, even through her coat. She started to slap at them, to brush them off, but more and more came. What? This is... Genjutsu!?

She dropped her sword, bringing up her hands in a single seal and shouting "Kai!"

The bugs suddenly dissappeared as she picked up her sword, but something approached behind her and she spun around just in time to block a blow by Ken aimed for her shoulder. She stumbled back from the force, gasping in shock at the sudden attack.

A few seconds later, she found a blade through her right shoulder and she froze, looking up at Ken who had a similar look of shock on his face. It was odd, she couldn't feel any pain. Her shoulder was numb, her stomach was churning at the sight of her own blood, but she felt no pain.

"Rikou..."

But she wouldn't give up, not yet. She lashed out, throwing her ninja-to towards him and catching him in his thigh, staining his white trenchcoat red with blood. She pulled back, throwing her black coat off and into his face, delaying any attacks for a moment as she fell backwards onto the ground, gasping.

She grabbed her right shoulder, staunching the bloodflow as she struggled up. The crowd was oddly silent, and as she looked up, she noticed them staring at her. Oh, right, she thought, glancing at her heavily scarred body. Ken threw the black coat off of his body as he also struggled up, pulling out her ninja-to and casting it aside.

She gasped for breath, struggling against her instinct to run. Ken was also breathing heavily, but he recovered quickly, readying his sword.

"Please forfeit, Rikou. I don't want to hurt you," he said, cocking his katana and causing the sun to glint off it.

Rikou shook her head, causing pain to shoot up from her shoulder finally. "I'm not going to run..."

More pain suddenly erupted from her shoulder, burning up her neck and down her arms, her muscles suddenly giving out and causing her to collapse, still clutching her shoulder.

"Please, Rikou!"

She shook her head, and Ken finally charged again. He fell upon her, bringing his katana down over her head, but she reacted in a flash, and Ken found himself stopped in mid-swing.

It was an odd position to be in, Rikou was on her knees, bent over backwards, the chain of her kamas stretched taught and blood running freely over her skin. Ken was poised over her, a leg on either side of her body as he supported his own weight with his sword which was pressed into the silver chain. Rikou swallowed hard, the pain becoming almost intolerable.

Neither of them could move, if Rikou moved, Ken would fall onto her, and Ken just plain couldn't move, he was relying solely on the chain itself for support. Rikou coughed twice, swallowing again and momentarily closing her eyes before executing a difficult move.

She let the chain loosen slightly, causing Ken to slump forwards a few inches. She then slid her legs out from under her, catching his legs and tripping him as she kicked up into his stomach, hitting the ground hard as he flew back a few feet.

Ken staggered back up as she lay panting on the ground, lifting his sword again. Chakra suddenly erupted from his arms, travelling up the sword and taking it's shape, forming a sharp edge and a fine point.

"Rikou! Don't make me use it!"

Rikou pushed herself back up, biting her lip as the pain washed over her again, her head spinning and her stomach churning as adreneline pumped through her body. She swallowed hard, eying Ken's now glowing sword.

She suddenly froze, trapped in one of Ken's genjutsus again. But this time it was different. The world exploded in light, blinding her even as she closed her eyes, before plunging into complete, suffocating darkness and silence. She couldn't breath, she couldn't use any of her senses, she couldn't move at all. She couldn't even fell the pain of her shoulder.

She didn't know how long she was trapped like that, it felt like hours, but something snapped her out just in time as it dug it's black beak into her wound painfully, snapping her back to reality. The crow was perched on her shoulder and Ken was charging at her, but this time she was ready.

"Tsuki-kage no Mai!"

She suddenly melted into the tree's shadow, the crow taking flight again, as she exploded from the ground behind him, wrapping the chain around his neck and causing him to drop his sword. But he elbowed her in the stomach, sending her backwards as he spun around to face her.

"Rikou! Stop it! You're hurting yourself!"

Rikou was breathing heavily, but she managed to snap out a few words. "I don't care! I'm not going to forfeit!" If I use too much more chakra, I'll have an attack...

Ken seemed trapped between attacking his team mate, or helping her. He suddenly dropped his head, sighing as he raised his hand.

"Then, if you won't... I...I forfeit!"

Rikou looked up at her friend in amazement. "Why-?"

Ken lifted his head and grinned at her, picking up her coat and throwing it back to her. He picked up his sword, sheathing it as he held out a hand to help her up.

"Hikari Ken has forfeit this match, therefore the winner is Gekkou Rikou!"

Rikou tried to get up, but her legs wouldn't move. Pain suddenly washed over her again and she grabbed her shoulder, wincing as tears formed in her eyes. A team of medical-nin came out onto the field, carrying a white stretcher betweent them. They kneeled beside her and lifted her onto it, draping her trenchcoat over her before lifting the stretcher.

"Can you walk?" one of them asked Ken. He nodded, limping alongside the stretcher as they carried her into the treatment room. Ken walked in beside her, sitting on one of the bods as a medical-nin came to tend to him.

The two ninja carrying her lifted her onto the table, pulling the trenchcoat from her as one brought chakra to his hands. He gently used two fingers, his middle and pointer, and pressed them into the wound, sealing it and stopping the bloodflow. He then gave her a cloth to wipe up the blood.

She turned her head towards Ken, where he was chatting amiably with the medical-nin, asking him about his techniques. He looked so content just speaking with him, showing him his own techniques as the medical-nin corrected some things. She watched as his hand glowed green and he touched his own wound, sealing it himself and thanking the medical-nin as he left the room.

He's so good around other people... Why did he forfeit?

"Ken..."

He lifted his head, the green chakra fading from his hands. "Yeah?"

"Why did you forfeit? Don't you want to become a chuunin?"

He looked at her for a moment before his face broke into a smile. "Of course! But I didn't want to hurt you, and my friend's are more important than my future."

Rikou struggled into a sitting position, looking at him curiously. "But... don't you want to become a medical-nin? This is your second chuunin exam."

"Yeah," he said quietly, dropping his head again. But he raised it and grinned at her. "But I know you're having a hard time right now, and I didn't want to make things harder for you."

Rikou gazed at him for a moment longer, before she dropped her head again, lost in thought. A medical-nin came into the room, handing her her ninja-to before leaving again. She wiped it on her trenchcoat, holding it in her lap and looking it over. She felt the bed sag for a moment as Ken dropped down beside her, looking at it as well.

She ran her fingers across the cold, smooth blade, tracing a finger up it and towards the handle where her brother's name was engraved. Gekkou Hayate.

"It's your brother's?"

"Yeah," she said. "I don't have my own. When we trained together, he always gave me one of his, usually this one because it was the easiest for me to use."

Ken looked down at the sword for a moment, before drawing his own and holding it up in the same manner. "This handed down to me from my dad along with everything else when he died. My whole family were all trained in Ninpou, and they all fought in the Demon War with Kyuubi. Since I was only one year old, I obviously couldn't fight with them, so I'm stuck with my uncle, the only one who wasn't a ninja."

Rikou turned her head slightly to look at him, before her eyes dropped to his sword. It was incredibly beautiful. The blade was very light silver, almost white, and it shone brightly in the sun. The handle was white, bound with brown leather, and the end had a crystal orb attatched to it with a small hole running through it.

"What's that for?" she asked, pointing to the orb. Ken lifted the sword slightly so she could better see the handle.

"Umm... Well, this sword is passed down to the successors of my clan, and we specialize in sword-fighting and chakra techniques. This sword is really old, it was made around two hundred years ago. You've seen my techniques, right?"

"Yeah," she said, remembering ho his sword would glow blue.

"Well, this sword was specially made for my techniques, or for the clan's techniques. There are many holes in the handle that run all the way up through the blade and allow chakra to pass through it. I can control all of these litle tunnels, focus chakra to one point or to all points and make the sword a deadly weapon, see?"

He handed her the sword, and she examined it closely, squinting at the small pinholes that dotted the surface. He reached out and took it back from her.

"Watch."

He held the handle and his arms glowed blue for a moment. The chakra passed up the sword and he molded it to one side, then to the other, then to the tip, and then her made it engulf the entire sword before it faded away.

"That must take alot of practice..."

Ken sheathed the sword, sighing. "That's an understatement. I swear, training for any more than an hour wastes all of my chakra for around three days."

Rikou smiled faintly for the first time in days, sheathing her own swords. She grabbed her trenchcoat and slipped it back on, reattatching her sheath on top and grabbing her kamas from the bed.

There was suddenly a loud outburst of cheers from the crowd, and Ken stood, stretching his leg and wincing in pain, rubbing his thigh.

"Do you want to head back up to watch the last matches?"

Rikou nodded, slipping off the bed and stretching as well. She wrapped her kamas around her body inside her trenchcoat before walking with Ken back up to the stands.

"Hey, are you guys okay now?" asked Kirema, turning towards them. She noticed Kanzu standing behind him and waved to him.

"Yeah," said Ken, waving at Kanzu as well.

"Who's match?" asked Rikou, peering down at the two participants.

"Uchiha Sasuke and Gaara," said Kanzu, looking down as well. Rikou tore her eyes away from the battle and glanced at the crowd, still seeing the Anbu surrounding them unnoticed.

"Umm.. sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"Why are there Anbu here as well?"

Kanzu looked up at one of the Anbu, before turning to her. "For security."

Rikou narrowed her eyes slightly at the simple answer, thinking: he's still hiding something. She turned back to the battle, watching as the sand around Gaara slowly fell away. She noticed his shoulder was smeared with red.

"What!? That guy...? He wounded Gaara!?"

"What are you talking about, Rikou? So what?" asked Kirema.

"Gaara... He's never been hit before... never been wounded like that... He's never bled."

Rikou watched as the two shinobi faced eachother, Sasuke breathing heavily, but grinning. She suddenly felt a change in the atmosphere and looked up to see thousands of white feathers falling from the sky.

"...Sensei...? What is that?"

Kazu looked up as well, but Rikou suddenly tuned as Ken and Kirema fell to the ground. Genjutsu!?

She held up her hands in a seal, looking around and seeing many of the other jounin and Anbu doing the same.

"Kai!" The feathers around her suddenly disappeared, and she looked around. The entire crowd was asleep or unconcious, all slumped forwards except for a jounin every now and then who was standing and cancelling the genjutsu.

"What's going on, Kanzu-sensei!?" she asked, her voice rushed and pannicked as she looked around.

"I'm not sure..." he said.

She looked up to where the Hokage was sitting, and saw the Kazekage with a kunai to his throat. "Sensei! The Hokage-sama!"

Kanzu spun around, gasping at the sight. "A suprise attack!?"

"What!?"

"The Sand... The Sand and the Sound are attacking!"

Rikou's breaths sped up as she turned towards the two Sand gennin, Kankuro and Temari.

_"Just... I don't want anything to happen to you... something is happening and I don't want you to get caught in it..."_

She remembered Kankuro's words in the hospital as she looked at his face. She heard an explosion and turned back to the arena, ducking as a kunai flew over her head. Anbu were everywhere as Sand-nin washed over the crowd, engaging in battles as they went. Four Sound-nin jumped in front of her, but Kanzu was there in a flash, taking them out by slashing their throats open.

Rikou cringed as they fell on the ground in front of her, inches away. Kanzu stood protectively over her, watching out for any enemies.

"Sensei...?"

"This is war, Rikou. Wake up Ken and Kirema. Now."

Rikou moved quickly, she had never heard her sensei speak in this tone before. She made a seal and touched each of their chests. They twitched in their sleep, opening their eyes as a body flew past their heads and slammed into the wall, leaving a trail of blood as it slid down to the ground.

"What's going on!?" shouted Kirema, standing and casting around. Ken pulled him back to the ground as a number of kunai and shuriken whizzed past his head.

"Rikou? What happened!?" he hissed.

"I'm not sure... The Sound and the Sand are attacking Konoha... The Kazekage is trying to kill the Hokage-sama."

"What!?" they both hissed, looking at her in shock.

"This..." she looked to where Kanzu was fighting another Sound-nin. "This is a war."


	11. 11

Kanzu threw down another Sound-nin, spinning around and sending him into the cement wall behind them. Rikou looked around from where she sat on the ground, looking around at the large number of Anbu dashing through the arena. Her muscles didn't seem to want to work, so she simply sat motionless with her team mates.

"You three, you are elite gennin, I want you to stay together and help deal with the Sound and Sand! Go!"

Ken and Kirema nodded, but Rikou was still frozen. She covered her mouth, her head spinning, and Ken moved to her side.

"What's wrong?" he hissed. She swallowed and closed her eyes, feeling sick.

"...I'm going to have an attack..."

"What!? Now!?"

"We have to find that doctor!"

Ken paused for a moment as Rikou struggled for breath, she had had too much sun.

"We don't have enough time... The doctor could be anywhere... It would take us hours to find her. I'll just have to do it myself."

"What?" hissed Kirema, his eyes wide. "But you were only taght the basic stuff! You don't fully know how to deal with an attack!"

Ken paused again, his eyes darting around as he tried to think up another plan. "There's no other choice..."

Rikou began coughing violently, her shoulders shaking as she struggled to breathe between coughs. She clutched the sides of her head, closing her eyes and trying to relax, but it was useless when she remembered she hadn't taken her pills for over a week.

"Rikou!" She managed to lift her head to meet Ken's eyes.

"...Yeah?"

"I'm going to try to stop it, okay?"

She nodded, coughing again, and he reached up, removing her trenchcoat as another kunai whizzed past them. Her arms felt heavy as he slipped it off completely. His face was serious as he remembered the steps, concentrating.

"Umm... I don't have the pills or the anesthetic, so it's be painful, but I can still do it..."

Rikou squeezed her eyes shut tightly, clutching her head again as another bout of coughing shook her thin frame cruelly. Her heart and lungs had slowed dramatically, and she broke out in a cold sweat, her muscled aching from lack of oxygen.

Ken swore quietly under his breath as he reached up a hand, placing it on the dark red tatoo on her shoulder. She gasped in pain as the scars on her body began to burn black, spreading over her body, searing across her body. A series of circles appeared on her back, and Ken brought green chakra to his other hand, placing it over that and running his own chakra through her body, aroung her lungs and heart, speeding them back up to normal speed.

Ken's forehead beaded with sweat, his silvery hair hanging in his face as he finished the treatment, dropping his hands and sighing. Rikou moaned softly, clutching her head and coughing a few times. When she raised her head, Ken gasped to see a trickle of blood leaking from the corner of her mouth.

"Rikou! What's happened? Everything should be fine!"

Rikou wiped awaay the blood, coughing again. Her lungs and heart were back to normal, but the pain was still present.

"...I forgot to take the pills..."

"What!? For how long!?"

"Over a week..."

"WHAT!?!?" Ken began cursing loudly, running a hand through his hair as he frantically thought of what to do.

"Your brother had the same pills, right? We have to get to his house!"

Kirema looked around at the fighting, scratching the back of his head. "And how do we do that?"

"Damnit... Just run."

Ken slipped Rikou's arms around his neck, grabbing her legs and lifting her off the ground. Kirema stood as well, grabbing her kamas as he followed Ken along the side of the arena, skirting the edge carefully to avoid being seen. They came across a hole that went straight through the cement wall, and Ken jumped into the forest below, followed by Kirema.

"Do you remember where his house was? I've only been there once."

Ken nodded, leading the way to Hayate's apartment quickly, staying in the shadows and pausing every once and awhile to make sure they weren't being followed. Rikou shifted slightly, squeezing her eyes shut as tight as she could and biting her lip to give her some other pain to focus on, but it didn't help.

Ken paused against a wall, gazing out into the street as nine shadows dashed past them before dashing out towards the apartment building, pushing past the door and up the stairs two at a time up to the second floor.

"Rikou... Which door?"

Rikou shifted slightly, her head throbbing as she tried to remember. "Ugh... 206... The keys under the mat, I think..."

Ken dashed down the hall, stopping at the door as Kirema pulled a key from under the small mat, fiddling with the lock for a second before pushing the door open. Ken rushed in and placed her on her brother's bed, before dashing off to look for any of the pills.

Kirema went into the small kitchen, grabbing a glass and filling it with water, bringing it over to Rikou before joining Ken in his hunt. A moment later, they both returned with a number of containers full of pills.

"Geez, how much medicine did your brother take? This is unhealthy," said Kirema, picking up a bottle and examining it.

"Which one is it, then?"

Rikou opened her eyes, looking at the bottles with blurred vision. There was an explosion nearby that rattled the windows. She reached out a hand and indicated a bottle which Ken then opened, reading the instructions quickly before shaking out three pills.

Rikou placed them in her mouth all at once, drinking down the water quickly before falling back onto the bed and letting the cool feeling wash over her, numbing her body, cooling her mind, soothing her skin. She let out a sigh, placing her hands over her face and taking a few deep breaths.

She sat in the silence for a moment before sitting up and dropping her hands away from her face.

"We should head back out now, Kanzu-sensei told us to help in the battle," said Kirema.

"I don't want to fight anymore," she said quietly.

"But Kanzu-sensei ordered us to," argued Kirema, turning to her.

"... I just... Everything's falling apart."

Ken shifted slightly, glancing at Kirema for a moment. "What are you talking about? The Leaf's gonna win this, we have many talented shinobi on our side."

Rikou shook her head. "It's not just that... First Dad, then my brother, then the Akatsuki appear again, then I have to fight Ken in the exam, then Kankuro... the Sand betray Konoha, and now a war... Everything is falling apart... I can't take it anymore, I give up."

"...Rikou, you can't disobey our sensei, he gave us an order."

Rikou shifted, sliding her feet off the bed and placing them on the floor. She brushed past the two gennin, moving towards the closet.

"I'm not disobeying him... I'm going after the Sand gennin."

"What!?"

She glanced at them for a second, before opening the closet and disappearing for a moment. She rummaged around through her brother's clothes, jounin vests, Anbu outfits, looking for one of his older ones and pulling it out, an Anbu uniform, one of his first. He had become an Anbu at an extremely young age, at fourteen, so the uniform would fit her perfectly.

When she emerged from the closet, Ken and Kirema were still staring at her. She brushed past them, moving into the bathroom and stripping off her dirtied clothes along with her sword, and starting to get into the uniform, strapping up the shirt and pulling on the tight, black pants. She pulled the long, black glove up past her elbows and strapping the white arm guards overtop. She removed her Leaf headband, gazing at it for a moment before hanging it up on a rack of towels.

She re-strapped the sword around her body, glancing in the mirror and brushing her hair from her face before stepping out of the bathroom, back to Ken and Kirema. She brushed silently past them again, moving back into the closet and pulling an Anbu mask and a brown cloak from the back wall. The mask was a racoon mask, decorated with blue lines that curved gently around the eyes. He had many masks, one for each year he had been in the Anbu, which was nine years, and he also had a uniform for everytime he grew out of his old ones, which was often.

When she stepped out of the closet again, she finally met Ken and Kirema's eyes. Ken's mouth was open slightly as he stared in silence at her.

"...What are you doing?"

"Going after them."

"What's with the uniform?"

Rikou paused for a moment, to say she was wearing it for her brother sounded lame, so she made up another excuse. "This way, they won't know which Village I'm from, it provides better camouflage, and it's easier to move around in."

"What!? You're leaving now?"

She paused again. "No idiot, I'll wait until the war's over," she said sarcastically.

"What!? Then I'm going with you, Kanzu-sensei told us to stay together, right Ken?"

"Huh? Oh, right. I'm going too."

Rikou sighed, throwing the cloak and mask on the bed before heading back into the closet and pulling out two other uniforms, slightly larger than hers. She threw them out at the two gennin before moving to the back and pulling a grey and a brown cloak from the wall along with bird and weasel masks.

She threw them roughly at the two gennin, where they moved into the bathroom to get changed as well. When they closed the door, she looked back into the closet. Something had caught her eye. She reached out and picked up an old book from the ground, sitting back on the bed and opening it.

Gekkou History...? She read the title again before glancing down at the writing below it, glancing at one of the pictures and gasping. It was an exact replica of herself. She turned the page, another picture of a girl around her age with the exact same look as her. Flipping through the book, she saw a total of twelve girls, all of which looked exactly like her, the only difference being their clothing and hair. They all had the same shocking green eyes, at least in the colour picures, and the same, morose look on their faces.

"What...?"

She flipped back through, reading the names and ages, Gekkou Midori, 14, Gekkou Kaijin, 11, Gekkou Yuri, 13, Gekkou Atari, 13, Gekkou Shikon, 12... She reached the last page to find her own name, Gekkou Rikou, along with a picture of her and a biography written in her father's writing. She flipped past it and read further.

_The curse...? _She read down the page, flipping it over and reading the article to the end. Puzzled, she re-read it again, still not understanding.

_'The first born child of the Gekkou clan. Gekkou Midori, was cursed at the age of five by the Key Keeper, Yami Kagi, an 'S'-class missing-nin from the Hidden Cloud. Kagi bribed her with three wishes, which he had promised to fufil if she gave stole two things for him, a legendary sword from the Hokage and a key. Once she aquired these items, he betrayed her, placing a curse upon her that promised an early death. The curse came in the form of a deadly disease, causing great pain before death._

_'However, Gekkou Midori managed to surpass her expected lifespan, passing the name to the next generation, but dying while giving birth. She had twins, a boy and a girl, each cursed with the same sickness as she, although the boy's was in a different form. The girl, however, named Gekkou Kaijin, was cursed with the same disease as her mother. This curse has been passed through the generations, at least one female cursed with the same disease at any givin time._

_'The cursed children had a life expectancy of eighteen years, although it wan not uncommon for them to live past twenty. Traits that they all shared were their striking green eyes, raven black hair, low tolerance for sunlight and a curse seal on their right shoulder...'_

_Curse seal? I thought it was a tatoo..._

_'One of the cursed children managed to steal three keys from Kagi before she died, hiding them away and angering the Keeper. He promised to give back their normal lives if they returned the keys, but not trusting him, the Gekkou clan retained them. To show them he wasn't lying again, he granted the current cursed child, Gekkou Atari, with two more traits. The first was a summoning scroll for the crow demon, Kuro, and the other was a hidden store of chakra that could be called up in dire circumstances._

_'The Gekkou clan was not convinced, so they remained the keepers of the three keys. These new traits continued to be passed down through the cursed children. The only way to release the curse is to kill the Keeper, but to this day that has been impossible as he has fallen back into hiding. One of the items that was first stolen, the legendary sword, was stolen back from Kagi by Gekkou Shikon at the age of fifteen and returned to the Gekkou clan, although they never returned it to the Hokage.'_

Rikou turned the page in confusion, but it was ripped up. She flipped to the next pages, but they were all blank. She scanned the article again, not understanding completely, but getting the main idea.

The door to the bathroom suddenly opened, and she jumped at the sudden noise, closing the book. She herd a slight jingling and looked to the ground where three keys had fallen from the pages of the book, picking them up and examining them.

_These must be..._

"What's that?" asked Ken, stepping out in uniform.

"...It's nothing."

She shoved the keys into her weapons pouch and replaced the book in the closet. She turned to the other two, lifting her cloak and her racoon mask and attatching it around her head. She pulled the dark brown cloak over her body, pulling over the hood. She turned to Ken and Kirema, each wearing their own cloaks and masks now.

"Who's gonna lead?" asked Kirema, glancing at Rikou. She was silent, unsure of the answer.

"Rikou should, she knows the Sand better than us."

"What? But-"

"Face it Rikou, you're the best at tactics," said Ken. Rikou sighed in exasperation.

"Fine, let's go... actually..."

She pulled off her cloak and removed the ninja-to, moving over to the wall of swords and gazing up at them through the mask. _It must be the katana_, she thought, reaching up and removing the sword from the wall. She strapped it across her back before replacing her cloak and heading out the door, dashing outside and jumping onto the roof.

The three stood, the wind blowing their cloaks as Rikou turned slightly, getting her bearings. To the east, three giant snakes had their fanged heads raised, attacking the gate. She turned towards the forest.

"Let's go," she said quietly, vanishing as she jumped towards the trees.


	12. 12

Rikou hopped easily over the wall, landing in a crouch on the forest floor before dashing off. Scanning the ground, she finally found what she was looking for. A set of footprints, two people around her age. But as she moved forwards, following them, the number grew. A new set of footprints joined theirs, closely followed by another three people, making it a total of six people. There was a pawprint nearby as well.

"Six people and a dog...? The first two were Kankuro and Temari's, they must be carrying Gaara for some reason. The third is that boy who went after Gaara, Sasuke. The last three I'm not sure, probably Leaf gennin as well though."

"What about these?" asked Ken, pointing to the left as they stopped running.

"What?"

He pointed to the ground, where a set of tracks were barely visible. Nine other people chasing after the first seven.

"Great," said Kirema, sighing.

Rikou paused, making sure of what she was seeing, before heading out after them, jumping through the branches quickly. Ahead of them, she saw eight figures facing a single man, a boy, a Leaf gennin. She stopped along with the other two, watching from the trees as another shape suddenly fell from behind him.

The eight other ninja, Sound-nin, charged the new person, but a moment later, they all lay face-down in the dirt, all dead. She led the group forwards more, into sight as she watched the gennin speaking with the Leaf jounin who she recognized to be one of the sensei, Asuma.

"Excuse me, Asuma-san, which way did the Sand go?" said Kirema, coming up behind her. Kirema's voice was lower than the other two, it had already deepened, and he sounded the most adult, so the jounin didn't seem to notice he was only fourteen.

"Anbu?" said the jounin, raising an eyebrow. The gennin faced them as he pointed to his right slightly, behind him.

"There are three gennin already pursuing them Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura, team seven, along with a dog summon."

Rikou grit her teeth. "Only three gennin? Gaara will kill them without a thought," she hissed to Kirema.

"Is that all? Just the three gennin?" He asked.

The gennin nodded. "Sasuke went after Gaara and the other two went after him, but they're not there to fight, they're just stopping Sasuke from encountering the Sand-nin Gaara."

Rikou lowered her head in thought. "Let's hurry," she hissed to Kirema. He lowered his head to the two Leaf-nin.

"Thank you," said Kirema. Rikou moved back to the front as they dashed off again, leaving the two Leaf-nin behind as they dashed off after the Sand. Rikou sped through the trees, glancing to the sides and catching glimpses of the other two, almost melting into the background because of their cloaks.

There was a sudden explosion from up ahaead a few minutes later, and Rikou ended up stopping them again. Ken quickly jumped up one of the larger trees, scanning the horizon. Rikou caught her breath as she watched his head turn slowly from side to side. He suddenly gasped, almost losing his balance, but catching himself. He remained in the tree for a few more moments before jumping back down.

"I'm not sure what's going on... But there are two giant demons fighting eachother about two kilometers to the west, a giant frog or toad and some kind of... pale _thing_..."

"_Thing_? What's that supposed to mean?" hissed Kirema, glancing to the west and squinting, not seeing anything.

Rikou studied Ken's face, noticing how pallid it appeared to her, and knew immidiately what he had seen.

"This is bad, that was probably Gaara...Or the Shukaku at least," she said as another loud explosion shook the forest.

"What? I don't know what's going on, but shouldn't we help them fight?"

Rikou lowered her head, this time listening to instinct. "We should move forwards slightly, but keep our distance and not get involved. There are too many undecided factors. We don't know the condition of any of the people fighting, we don't know who's winning, we don't know the enemy's plans, we don't even know who's fighting Gaara... It could be another group, maybe even the Sound for all we know."

"But... Shikamaru said that Team seven was after the Sand. What if they're in trouble?"

Rikou bit her lip, glancing at Ken as he argued his point. "We'll be killed then."

"But... If they're in trouble, it's our job to help them whether or not our lives are in danger."

Rikou closed her eyes, crouching and thinking hard. She had been in this position before, except last time she had gotten her entire team, sensei included, brutally slaughtered. She had let them talk the fear out of her, let them repel her instinctal warning signs, and she herself had led them straight into the face of death, only narrowly escaping with her life.

"Rikou, we should hurry," said Kirema urgently. She sighed, fighting a mental war.

"...I don't think we should," she tried, keeping her head lowered. There was another loud rumble.

"Rikou! They'll be killed if we don't help now!"

"No! I said we should keep our distance!"

There was a stunned silence at her sudden outburst as she looked up. "Sorry... It's just... This is the exact same thing that got my last team killed..."

Ken seemed to relax a bit, sighing. "Oh... so I guess we should listen to you then."

Rikou glanced over to him, he almost always took her side. She smiled faintly, but it faded as another explosion shook her. She stood.

"We should head a little further on and find a good lookout," she said. The other two nodded and she dashed off again, heading about half a kilometer west until she found what she was looking for, a large, thick-branched tree that stood several feet above the other trees around it.

She jumped quickly up to the canopy, Ken and Kirema landing beside her as they watched the gruesome battle taking place before them. A giant orange toad was clashing at high speed with a full Shukaku demon, who Rikou knew to be Gaara in his transformed state.

"Geez, look at that," breathed Ken, gazing out at the demon battle.

"Look! There's a kid on top of the toad! It looks like one of the Leaf gennin!"

Rikou gazed out, squinting her eyes as Kirema pointed a nekote-armed finger towards the toad, and sure enough, she saw a small blonde head and an bright orange outfit.

"...Is that the Naruto kid? The fox kid?" asked Ken, reading Rikou's mind. She gazed out at the battle as the two demons met in mid air, falling back to the ground in silence. But not for long. The amoutn of time it took for the shockwave of sound to meet them wasn't long delayed, and when it came, it almost knocked them from their branch.

"Geez," muttered Ken, regaining his balance and glancing at the other two to make sure they were alright.

"That kid's pretty powerful, he must have summoned the toad. Look at how well he fights," said Kirema, watching closely.

"What!? What are they doing?"

Rikou narrowed her eys as the toad jumped back suddenly, facing the Shukaku and saying something to Naruto. It suddenly charged at the sand demon, holding out it's hands as it fell upon the demon.

A moment later, Rikou found herself watching the nine-tails demon fox, the Kyubi, slashing out with it's claws and biting with needle-sharp teeth dripping with saliva. She almost fell of the branch at the sight, her blood freezing as she looked upon the demon that had taken the lives of so many Leaf-nin twelve years ago, Yondaime, the Fourth, included on the long list.

"What!? Did... Did he summon the Kyubi!? Or did he turn into it!? Ugh..." Ken winced as the Kyubi locked it's jaws around the Shukaku's neck, grinding down as a peircing shriek reached their ears. Rikou released her grip on the branch, covering her ears and hunching over to try to block out the ear-splitting noise.

Ken turned towards her, his blue and white weasel mask glinting in the sun as he glanced at her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just that noise," she said, taking her hands away from her ears and grabbing hold of the branch again, looking out at the battle. The Kyubi and the Shukaku met in midair, suddenly disappearing, replaced by two small shaped that collided before falling to the earth.

"They changed back...?"

Rikou waited for a moment, watching for any signs of battle, before raising herself from her crouch.

"Let's go," she said, taking off towards the leveled part of the forest and dashing along the tree branches. It only took them about fifteen minutes to reach the battle field, and when they did, the Sand gennin were alredy gone, as were the Leaf gennin.

Rikou dropped from the branch she was on, landing in the middle of the clearing and examining it. There was blood, sand and kunai everywhere, littering the ground like leaves. The Leaf-nin seemed to have carried one of their number back to Konoha already, as their footprints turned back eastward. Another set of footprints, two, were continuing west.

"Let's go," she said quietly.

"What about the other gennin? They're hurt," said Ken, looking towards the set of dragging footprints.

"Leave them, they'll be fine, we need to continue after the Sand."

She stood, making sure of the direction the footprints were taking.

"We should take these, it's getting late," said Ken, rummaging in his weapon's pouch and producing three pills, soldier pills. Rikou took one, swalloing it quickly.

"Umm... We should follow them for awhile until we are able to cut them off, but that must be before the border of the Wind Country. Remember, these uniforms also act as a bluff, they will force them to use their strongest attacks when they assume we are jounin or chuunin level Anbu.

"Ken, you trap them in genjutsu first before heading in alone and immobilizing them. If they become too much for you to handle, Kirema will step in, and if you can't handle them then I'll fight as well. As long as Gaara is either in bad condition or trapped in genjutsu, we should be fine. Try not to kill them, just capture them and bring them back to the Leaf, alright?"

The others nodded, standing as well as she turned west, jumping back into the trees and heading out after the three Sand gennin.

_Kankuro... Why are you doing this to me? _Rikou slammed a foot down into another moss-covered branch, launching herself back into the air. _I thought you really loved me, but now... I just can't believe you would do this to me, to the Leaf..._

Ahaead of them, she saw three shapes, identifying the three Sand gennin, Gaara slung over his brother's shoulder as they dodged at a laboured pace through the forest. They remained following them for awhile, stalking them in silence.

Rikou motioned for Ken and Kirema to move forwards and they split up, Ken to the left and Kirema to the right. Rikou remained directly behind the three Sand-nin as Ken made his move, halting them in their tracks as they gasped for breath.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Kankuro let Gaara slump to the ground as he and Temari moved in front of him.

"Leaf Anbu!?"

Ken threw off his grey cloak, drawing his katana and making a series of seals. Kankuro and Temari froze as the genjutsu swallowed them up, although Rikou could not see what they were seeing.

"Now!" shouted Ken, holding the last seal and keeping up the genjutsu. Kirema dropped from the trees to the right, cloak tied around his waist as he slashed out towards Kankuro first with his nekotes, slicing open his shoulder before spinning off towards Temari and grabbing her large fan away before restraining her arms, the genjutsu broken.

Ken ran towards Kankuro, one edge of his sword dripping with chakra as he clashed with him, almost cutting his hand clean off before spinning away. Rikou looked towards where Temari was struggling against Kirema, they were heading dangerously close to a cliff.

Rikou noticed how worn out the Sand gennin appeared, Kankuro was badly bruised, Gaara was unable to move, and Temari had blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. _But we shouldn't underestimate them, that'll get us killed._

She turned back to where Kankuro and Ken were fighting, but Kankuro had stopped moving, his body crumbling away to reveal the Karasu. Damn, I should have seen that, she thought, biting her lip and skirting around to the other side of the clearing for a better look..

_What!? _A metal point erupted from the Karasu's hand, narrowly missing Ken's eye as he flipped back. She squinted at it. _Poisoned!?_

Glancing around, she began searching for the real Kankuro's position, but she didn't need to. He emerged from the bushes a few feet away, almost from under her, as he controlled the Karasu, biting his lip in concentration and twitching his fingers.

_Shoot_, thought Rikou, glancing to where Kirema and Temari were fighting. She had retrieved her fan, but at least Kirema had managed to rip apart the fabric part, cutting down on it's efficiency. But the closed fan still served as a formidable weapon, and Rikou silently watched as Kirema backflipped and spun wildly to avoid a back-breaking blow from the metal.

If things weren't bad enough, another shape fell from the trees to her left, landing between the two battles in a crouch. It was their sensei, the jounin of the Sand, Baki.

"What are you wasting your time here for!? I said to abort the mission, not play around with the Leaf's Anbu!"

Kankuro grunted as Ken charged him again, but the Karasu did something odd. It's head popped off from the main body, scratching Ken's left arm before implanting itself into the ground and spewing out a cloud of greenish smoke. _Poison gas!?_

Rikou began pannicking, this was getting out of hand. I_ guess... I guess I'll have to fight._

She heard voices whispering nearby and saw the Sand-nin, Baki carrying Gaara, preparing to run back into the forest. But she would not allow that. She dropped from the trees, blocking their path and drawing the katana from within her cloak.

She stopped them in their tracks, the katana held out to her side in her right hand and glaring at them through her racoon mask. As the smoke cleared, Ken and Kirema, holding the cloaks over their mouths, came up behind them, trapping them. Baki grinned and lowered Gaara to the forest floor.

"More Anbu scum? You two deal with them, I'll take the leader," said Baki, falling into a fighting stance. Rikou wasted no time attacking.

"Gesshoku no Mai!" She made a number of quick hand seals as she shouted out the name of the jutsu before any of the Sand-nin could attack. There was a large puff of smoke as fifty or so shadow clones appeared around the clearing, each with their own katana. But she was not done.

"Tsuki-kage no Mai!"

She charged forwards along with the fifty clones, melting into the shadows and swarming around Baki. But he was a jounin, and Rikou had underestimated him.

"Kaze no Yaiba!"

Rikou remained in the shadows as a chakra-filled whirlwind easily slashed her fifty clones to shreds, eliminating them completely. And what was worse, it had given the Sand an opening to attack their opponents again, Kankuro engaging Ken and Temari engaging Kirema.

"Shoot," she muttered, emerging from the shadows and hiding behind a tree, Baki looking around for her.

"I see you've mastered Konoha's dances, Leaf-nin, and you appear to be still young. Very talented. But you shall fall the same way as Mr. Examiner."

Rikou froze. Mr...Examiner...? Hayate? Her shock was short lived however as her tree was sliced apart, rended right from behind her and almost cutting her in half alond with it. He killed Hayate!?

Her shock soon turned to anger that boiled up inside of her. She gripped the sword, feeling chakra trying to burst free. I'll kill him.

"Seishuku no Mai!!"

Two other clones appeared beside her, each sprouting swords from every part of their body as she sent them towards the jounin, knocking him back as he blocked. But she had underestimated him again. His blade of wind exploded from him again, knocking her and her clones back. She stumbled back, regaining her balance a moment before she fell... and fell...

She reached out just in time to plunge her katana into the cliff face a few inches, hanging there helplessly and looking down at the ninety-foot drop that gaped below her, threatening to swallow her up completely. As she dangled there, wondering what to do, she noticed something.

The sun was setting, the shadows were growing. She grinned, jerking back her katana and dropping as she threw off her cloak and sheathed it, making a few seals.

"Kuchi-yose no Jutsu!"

Wiping a speckle of blood from her arm and wincing, she plunged her hand downwards into the void beneath her, chakra spinning out from under her.

She felt herself propelled back up by a thousand black wings as a flock of crows erupted around her, cawing loudly and lifting her back up onto the forest level where she faced Baki. She saw Ken and Kirema on the ground a few feet away, Kankuro and Temari panting and facing her along with their sensei. Kankuro immediatly noticed her scars and his face paled as the crows settled around her, landing on her shoulders, in the trees, on the ground.

"...Rikou!?"

She reached up and pulled away the mask, letting the string fall around her neck as she threw it behind her, letting it rest between her shoulders. She glared angrily back at him, her green orbs boring into his black ones as she raised her hand.

"...Kill the Jounin and stop the others."

The flock of crows simultaniously lifted off into the air, diving back down at the Sand as she dashed around the edge towards Ken and Kirema. She looked them over, making a few seals.

"Kage Bunshin."

Two clones appeared beside her, one lifting Kirema and the other turning towards Baki and the Sand gennin. Rikou slipped the unconcious Ken's arm around her shoulder, lifting him as she and her clone retreated.

_Shoot, the sun's almost gone... and these two are badly injured... damnit... I alway screw things up._

She dashed as fast as she could through the trees as the sun completely disappeared, leaving her to navigate in the darkness. Every once and awhile she had to make a new shadow clone to carry Kirema, but she was running low on chakra.

She set Ken down, her clone doing the same to Kirema, as she checked over them, wincing when she saw Ken's arm where he had been scratched with the poisoned needle. She reached into Ken's weapon pouch and removed a kunai, pausing for a moment before cutting open the poisoned wound and bending forwards, placinh her lips on his skin and sucking out the poisoned blood. She spat it out and grabbed Kirema's cloak which was still around his waist, noticing a poisoned cut on him as well.

"Shit," she muttered seriously, looking over Ken and Kirema again. They had numerous infected cuts over their arms and necks. She tore the Anbu cloak into strips as she moved to each cut, sucking out the poison and wrapping it in the brown cloth.

She looked over her team mates, their pale faces unmoving and showing no expressions as she sighed, slumping down in exaughstion. They wouldn't be making it back tonight, maybe by tomorrow afternoon.

Carefully arranging two pillows and draping the remainder of the cloak over them, she sat up against a tree, preparing to keep watch all night. She rubbed her tatoo, or curse seal, absent-mindedly, her mind wandering to Kankuro and the war they were caught in. She looked up at the moon, thinking of her brother and how he must have died fighting Baki. Sighing, she dropped her head again, curling up tighter against the rough bark.

_I hate my life._


	13. 13

Rikou slowly opened her eyes, grunting as her muscles screamed at her. She must have accidentally fallen asleep sometime during the early morning, but she was no longer in the tree, but on the cold, hard ground.

Cold...? Rikou shifted slightly, pushing her body up and freezing. Mist hung around her so thickly that she could not even see her own hands. It was suffocating. No sound, not smell, no visual, and small droplets of water were clinging to her eyelashes and her black, feathery strands of hair. She shook her head flinging the droplets in every direction as she pushed herself into a crouch, crawling forward and squinting.

Her hand touched something slightly warmer, and she lowered her head close enough to make out Kirema's face, he was still unconcious. She grunted again, stretching her muscles and closing her eyes, they were useless anyways.

This mist, this cold... in the middle of summer? But yesterday... there were barely even any clouds, and last night was warm. She lowered her body, opening her eyes again and hovering protectively over the two other gennin. She brought her hands into a seal.

"Kai!"

Nothing happened. This isn't genjutsu? But...

"...Kai!!!"

Still nothing. She released the seal, squinting around at the gray haze around her. She heard footsteps suddenly, and dropped to the ground silently, on all fours beside Kirema as she squinted towards the mist ahead. The mist darkened slightly as two shapes paused.

Rikou stifled her breath, muffling any further noise as she stared wide-eyed at the shapes, which soon multiplied. There were now four, facing eachother.

"Itachi, where's the kid?"

The rough voice of an adult male reached her ears, slightly muffled by the mist. She nestled deeper into the ground beside Kirema.

"We had to call it off, we were attracting too much attention. We were confronted by the copy-ninja Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai," came another's voice, who Rikou thought she recognized as that of one of her interrogators.

"They're only numbered three, why didn't you just deal with them?"

"...Another arrived, saying he had called the Anbu. But, on top of that, Kakashi knows something of the organization. Perhaps that little rat heard more than she was supposed to and news got out about us."

"He's not going to be happy, order are orders," came the anothers voice.

"We are not done yet, we'll cut them off if we get him alone again," this time it was another's voice. Four ninja, thought Rikou, swallowing hard. This seems familiar...

"What about you two? I see no little brat. Or did you accidentally kill her?"

"Unlike you, Kisame, I don't mess around on missions. We looked for her, but she wasn't there after the war."

"The war's over?"

"Yes, Kagi, pay attention."

_Kagi!? What is...?_

"Shut up, Tatsu."

"Ugh... We just couldn't find her, maybe she went on a mission."

Rikou heard the sound of something metal jingling slightly. "If we come back empty-handed He's gonna kill us, ya know." One of the figures opened an umbrella, the sound of jingling reaching a climax before dropping off and disappearing completely.

"Yes, Kagi, we are well aware of that," came the bored drawl of the one he was apperently travveling with.

"...We've also been called together. Do you think it has to do with the reappearance of Orochimaru? We should simply kill him off now, he betrayed the organization. He is weak, we can easily deal with him."

"...No... We should concentrate on one thing at a time. We've haven't been sent out in pairs for nothing, we were ordered to find new sources of power. We also shouldn't underestimate Orochimaru, what he lacks in power, he makes up for in brains and resourcefulness"

There was a moment of silence as the one with the umbrella twirled it thoughtfully. Rikou could make out a large sword strapped across the back of the one she assumed to be Kisame.

"The Akatsuki have not been productive lately, we need to pick up the pace. The two currently in the Rain have captured one of their targets, but the other two in the Cloud are doing even worse than us. The only one making any progress id Him, and that's because he's working by himself. This sucks..."

"Ugh, shut up Kagi, we get the point. Let's get out of here, we need to work faster."

"I just said that, idiot."

"Please, just shut up. Nobody cares when you state the obvious."

"Let's go," came the dangerous voice of one of the figures. The two figures, him along with Kisame, disappeared, leaving the other two alone in the mist.

"We should move as well," said Tatsu.

"Aww, but I like the mist..."

"Just release the genjutsu and let's get going, Kagi. We don't have time to play around."

"Fine... Who are we after anyways?"

"Argh! Do you pay the slightest attention to anything ordered by Him? You of all people should know, we just killed her father at her own house!"

"Oh, right," said Kagi, folding his umbrella as the jingling came once more.

"...I can't believe I got stuck with you...This is so annoying..._You're_ so annoying. Let's get out of here... And I told you to get rid of the genjutsu!"

"Shut it, Tatsu. It's not like I wanted to be stuck with you either. Kai!"

The mist vanished, leaving Rikou exposed, but partially hidden in the bushes as her eyes remained frozen on the two ninja. They vanished suddenly, Rikou catching a glimpse of black and red Akatsuki robes and two pairs of cruel, wild eyes.

They...They weren't referring to me, were they? Akatsuki... In the Leaf... Right now!? I...I have to get back to the Hokage and warn them. Four Akatsuki will be hard to deal with...

She remained hidden for a moment before shifting slightly, digging in Ken's weapons pouch and producing a soldier pill, swallowing it quickly.

"Kage Bunshin," she wispered, making two clones. They each picked up a gennin and stood as she replaced her racoon mask, taking off into the forest towards Konoha. The sun had recently risin, bathing her in it's warmth as her frozen body slowly thawed.

It took her another hour and a half, and four more shadow clones, before she finally reached the walls of Konoha, quickly jumping them and heading to her brother's apartment, bursting through the door as the clones lay the two unconcious gennin on the bed.

"Get them back into their other clothes while I find some more bangages," she said quietly, dashing off into the closet. She stepped on something, and looked down to see the old book. Picking it up, she flipped through the pages, looking for a name.

_'The first born child of the Gekkou clan. Gekkou Midori, was cursed at the age of five by the Key Keeper, Yami Kagi, an 'S'-class missing-nin from the Hidden Rain. Kagi bribed her with three wishes, which he had promised to fufil if she gave stole two things for him, a legendary sword from the Hokage and a key. Once she aquired these items, he betrayed her, placing a curse upon her that promised an early death. The curse came in the form of a deadly disease, causing great pain before death.'_

_Yami Kagi? ...Kagi? This book is old and it covers many different generations... A man who was written about in the first generation should be long dead by now,_ she thought, closing the book. She removed her mask and hung it carefully on the wall in the back. She cast around for bandages, but found none and moved to the bathroom.

Glancing at the other two gennin, she found the clones gone and Kirema and Ken back in their normal clothes, trenchcoats hung over the back of a chair. She opened the bathroom door and began searching the drawers, which were full of pill containers, until she found a roll of white bandages.

Rushing back out, she began ripping off their old dressings, tightly wrapping the clean ones over their bodies until they were fullt bandaged. She sighed, coughing a few times and looking them over. Kirema's shock blue hair was badly dishevelled, hanging loosely across his feverish face. Ken looked even worse, beads of sweat covering his face, his eyelids twitching slightly, his breathing shallow.

"I need to get you to the hospital," she muttered, digging in Ken's weapons pouch. She found no more soldier pills.

Shoot, she thought. How am I supposed to carry both of them there?

She sat back for a moment, feeling drained as she looked at her team mates. She moved back to the bathroom, quickly changing, before coming back out and lifting Ken from the bed.

"I'll be back, Kirema," she muttered, slinging Ken's arms around her neck and dashing from the room, out onto the streets, the afternoon sun berrating her. The streets were oddly empty, doors locked, windows shut. She dashed across the rooftops towards the hospital, landing in a crouch before the double doors and standing, breathing heavily.

She pushed past the doors to find the hospital bustling with nurses, doctors and medical-nin, although there were no other ninja or visitors. A group of medical-nin who were going over something on a clipboard noticed her enter and rushed over immediately, lifting Ken from her shoulders. Before they could ask her anything however, she had rushed out of the building, back to the apartment to retrieve Kirema.

She lifted him in the same manner, struggling slightly more because of her breathlessness and because he weighed more then Ken. It took her slightly longer to reach the hospital, but she arrived back in the lobby, gasping for breath as she slumped to the ground, letting Kirema slide off her back.

"What's going on here?"

Two jounin appeared from a hall as the medical-nin took Kirema from her, rushing him off and barking orders to another group of ninja. Rikou caught her breath and looked up, shaking her head as she remembered what she had seen in the forest. She suddenly stood, glancing towards the two jounin who she didn't know.

"Ugh... I have important news! I need to speak with the Hokage-sama right away!"

The jounin closest to her eyed her suspiciously, before dropping his head. "The Hokage-sama... He was killed in the war by Orochimaru."

Rikou froze. "Wh-what!?"

She broke down coughing, clutching her stomach. _The Hokage-sama is gone? Now? But..._

She struggled up again, facing the two jounin. "Then... Let me speak with the Jounin Hisui Kanzu."

The jounin muttered something to the other shinobi beside him, who nodded. "He's here in the hospital, follow me."

Kanzu-sensei was injured as well? ...This is bad...

Rikou followed the Jounin through the busy halls, weaving through the swarms of doctors and turning left into another room. As he opened the door and moved aside to let her in, she found her sensei sitting up in bed and staring out the window. The door closed behind her.

"Kanzu-sensei!"

His head spun around as he stared at her in suprise. "Rikou!? What happened? I looked everywhere for you guys!"

"I have to make my report, I found out something important, but the Hokage-sama..."

Kanzu stared at her for a moment longer, before indicating a chair beside him. She sat down, fiddling with her hands and looking around before beginning her report.

"...We followed the three Sand gennin out of the village and persued them until around sunset when we confronted them. They were in bad condition after fighting Team Seven, Naruto fought with a giant toad summon against Gaara as the Shukaku, but he somehow turned into the Kyubi. When we fought them, Ken fought Kankuro, Kirema fought Temari, and I kept track of them as Gaara was unable to fight... Until their sensei came.

"He thought I was an Anbu because I used Henge to make myself look like one to bluff against the Sand, so he fought with me and knocked me off of a cliff. But I used the crow summon and managed to get back up, only to find Ken and Kirema unconcious. I ordered the crows to kill them or at least occupy them as I carried the others away...."

"Wait a second... actually, explain after. I have some questions, but keep going..."

Riku swallowed, going on. "But that wasn't what was important. I wasn't able to make it back here by the end of the day, so I set up camp in the forest and kept watch...but I guess I fell asleep. When I woke up the next morning, I was surrounded in a thick mist that I thought was genjutsu, but no when I tried to cancel it, it didn't work.

"Four shapes appeared, having most likely set up the place as a meeting place beforehand, and I his in the bushes as they spoke with eachother. But... I recognized one of them, and it was confirmed when they mentioned that they were from the organizationg Akatsuki..."

Kanzu's face paled slightly, but he said nothing. Rikou went on. "...There were four of them, I managed to pick up their names. One was Itachi, he was the one I recognized. I think he was one of the people who tortured me, I don't really remember, but he was from this village I think. The one he was with was called Kisame and he carried a giant sword. The other pair were called Tatsu and a man called...Kagi... He carried an umbrella and I think he was from the Hidden Rain.

'I also heard some of their plans, but I don't really understand all of it. They said 'He' had sent them out in pairs to other villages to find something... I think they said a source of power or something... But there were two in our village, and one was a boy, the other a girl... But, the girl... I think it might be me and... I'm scared...

"They said something about a 'rat' hearing more than she was supposed to and telling the rest of the Leaf, and that they killed her dad in her own house... Sensei, I think they're going to capture me and torture me again... I don't want to go back there..."

Kanzu's face was serious as he looked her over, her wet, tangled hair, her cut up skin, her striking green eyes that were constantly darting in every direction, reacting to the smallest noise. He sighed in frustration, looking back out the window.

"...Konoha is going through a rough time right now, the last thing we need is four 'S'-ranked missing-nin stalking the streets... As soon as we find a new Hokage, we will have to deal with this immediately. It's more serious than you think, Rikou.

"The number of shinobi killed in the war was a hard blow to our village, and the demand for ninja has grown. Everyone is on missions, we need the money to rebuild the village and yet we can't show weakness by refusing them. It will give other countries a chance to attack. But... These Akatsuki you speak of... There was another incident while you were gone, just this morning...

"The two you mentioned first, Itachi and Kisame, they were confronted by Asuma and Kurenai and they fought on a bridge. Kakashi even had to step in, and all three would have been killed if Gai hadn't shown up. He told them he had called the Anbu, and that was enough to deter them... But what's worse, Kakashi is, aside from the sannin and the Hokage, the strongest shinobi in Konoha. For him to be so easily beaten into such a state by Itachi... His power is almost unimaginable."

Rikou was still fiddling with her hands, glancing at her sensei's face every once and awhile. It softened slightly as he turned back to her.

"How are the other two?"

"...I'm not sure. I carried them here, they're both unconcious and poisoned..."

"What!? Geez, I hope they're okay..."

"I think they'll be fine, I managed to get most of the poison out and stop the bleeding."

Kanzu glanced back at her. "What were you talking about when you said the Kyubi and the Shukaku were fighting?"

"Umm... I'm not quite sure... I'm pretty sure the Kyubi was just created from the Henge no Jutsu. The Shukaku is the demon sealed within Gaara. I'm not quite sure about it though..."

Kanzu looked as if he wanted to ask her something else, but her closed his mouth and smiled instead. "You should get some rest, you look beat. Be prepared to be interviewed by the other jounin later on, they'll need more information."

Rikou stood thankfully, coughing once before leaving in silence, heading back to her brother's apartment.


	14. 14

Rikou stepped out of the room, sighing as she shut the door quietly behind her and slid into one of the chairs beside Kirema. All three wore new chuunin vests under their trenchcoats, Kirema earning his easily, but Ken and Rikou having a harder time getting theirs. There had been a large arguement over whether or not Rikou should become a chuunin, part of which she had witnessed before being sent out of the room again, but in the end, the new Hokage had decided to promote her.

The new Hokage was one of the legendary three, as well as the first female Hokage since the creation of Konoha. She was Tsunade, the legenday medical-nin who could summon giant slugs. Ken stood as the door creaked open and a chuunin motioned him inside. This was the eighth time the three of them had been interviewed by the Leaf for information on the Sand and the Akatsuki.

Rikou sat back with a troubled expression on her face as she thought about the Akatsuki and the book. She still hadn't mentioned anything to Ken and Kirema about the old book in her brother's closet. Her eyes twitched to the left as something clicked softly before sliding back to the blank wall in front of her.

"Hey, Kirema, can I show you and Ken something after he's done with the interview? I don't really understand it."

Kirema opened his eyes, rubbing them for a moment. They had been overworked for the last week, each being sent on mission after mission. Poor Kirema had been in high demand, and had spent every moment after his discharge from the hospital working.

"...Sure..."

He yawned, glancing at the door where voices were speaking softly. There was a moment of silence before the door opened again and Ken stepped out, closing the door and leaning back up against it before closing his eyes. When he opened them, his crystal blue eyes showed signs of fatigue and lost sleep like theirs.

"Never again... I never want another interview," he said, his voice quiet and strained as he stepped forwards.

"Can you come to my house with Kirema? I want to show you guys something," repeated Rikou, standing. She had moved her belongings into her brother's apartment instead of keeping it at her father's house, it was too cold and dark there.

"Sure," said Ken, glancing at her ackwardly before helping pull an almost asleep Kirema from his chair, forcing him out the door and towards her house. When they reached the apartment, she fiddled with the lock for a moment before pushing the door open.

The apartment was completely different. She had put up dark curtains to keep out the sun, the bed was darker, the walls had her own weapons hanging along with her brother's and the whole place was well organized. There were three boxes full of her brother's clothing in one corner of the room.

Kirema slumped over to her bed and flopped back, resting his arms over his face as Ken sat on the end of the bed. Rikou rummaged in the closet for a moment before producing the book and tossing it to Ken.

"Read it," she said, moving to the kitchen where she grabbed a glass of water and swallowed a few pills. Ken flipped silently through the book as Kirema sat up and read over his shoulder.

"A sword? Probably the Gurehane, the First's sword. They never did find it," he muttered scanning the pages. Rikou leaned against the counter as she watched their expressions changing from slightly confused to utterly lost.

"I don't get it... Wasn't Kagi that guy from the Akatsuki? This doesn't make sense..."

'I didn't think so," she muttered as he closed the book. He placed on the bed, prodding Kirema to wake up as he had fallen back onto the pillows. Rikou suddenly jolted at the sound of something hitting the covered window once, twice. Then it was followed by scratching and more rattling.

"Huh?" Ken turned towards the window and pulled apart the curtains as Rikou's heart beat faster. But it was only the crow. She sighed and moved over, opening the window and letting the bird in. It flew to her shoulder and prodded her lightly with it's beak.

"What is it?" she muttered, reaching up to stroke the dark bird. It dropped something in her hand. A key on a small length of thin chain.

"What is this...?"

She examined the small key, smaller than a normal key, only about two and a half centimeters, but intricately designed. She turned it slightly, examining it for a few moments. The crow shifted, rustling it's feathers and croaking softly.

"A key...?"

Ken stood and came forwards, looking at the key as well. "Is that from that guy? That Akatsuki guy you told us about? Kagi?"

Could it be? Here? Now? She closed her hand, squeezing the key as she dropped it into the pocket of her trenchcoat. She reached a hand up to the crow, letting it hop onto her fist before stroking it softly.

"...Maybe we should go check it out."

Rikou looked towards where Kirema was sitting, now wide awake and looking at her.

"If it is, we'll be killed," she said simply.

"If we find him before he finds us, then we might be able to gather more information," argued Kirema, standing and placing a hand on Ken's shoulder. "Right, Ken?"

Ken glanced between the two nervously. "I...Umm... I guess we should take a quick look..."

Rikou glared at the two other chuunin, still holding up the crow. "Fine," she said, moving the crow to her shoulder. "But if anything bad happens, were running."

Kirema grinned at the prospect of another mission, his usual energy returning as he pulled Ken out the door, Rikou following behind slowly. She found Ken and Kirema waiting patiently outside when she finally reached the bottom of the stairwell, and she paused. Lifting the crow off her shoulder, she let it fly off again, circling once before heading east over the city.

"Let's go!" Barked Kirema, jumping to the rooftops and chasing after the crow.

"Geez, wait up Kirema," mumbled Ken, jumping up after him along with Rikou.

I don't think this is a good idea, she thought, jumping towards the outskirts of town after the dark bird. The bird landed on top of a tall tree in the middle of a groove of trees where a single house, abandoned and boarded up, stood concealed.

The crow glided down to the earth, hopping along the ground before gliding again, past the house where it stopped. There were voices.

"If they already know what we look like, then what's the point of entering the city again? They'll just recognize us, and we'll find ourselves in the same position as Itachi and Kisame."

Rikou hid in the bushes, across from Kirema and with Ken to her left in the trees, almost completely hidden. She poked her head out slightly, looking upon two figures lazing in the sunlight, speaking in hushed tones. They both wore black and red Akatsuki robes.

"So what? It'll make things more interesting."

"If we're found out, He's gonna snap. Remember what happened last time? Even you couldn't laugh at that."

"Hn... But we still need to go in sometime to get this Gekkou kid, whats-her-face."

The other man groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Why me? Why am I stuck with you? Can you remember anything? You of all people should remember who we were sent out to get! At least try, Kagi!"

Kagi stood, facing away and looking up at the sun. He opened an umbrella which he pulled from across his back, opening it and twirling it. Something jingled as he did this, but Rikou was too far away to see anything clearly.

"Lighten up, dragon boy."

The other growled dangerously, but flopped back and sighed, folding his arms behind his head.

"And anyways, we aren't supposed to make our move until next week, so just relax, Tatsu."

Tatsu sighed. "Then what are you going to do about these rats?"

Rikou froze in her hiding place, her blood running cold.

"Well... We can chat them up if you want. Or play with them for awhile."

Tatsu stood, moving over to where Kirema was hiding. "Oi, come out of there."

There was no reply. Tatsu stepped forwards more. Something was strange about him, but Rikou couldn't quite place it. She couldn't see cleary from this far away.

"Oi...I said come OUT!"

Blue flame exploded from the bushes, blasting Kirema forwards where he hit the ground hard, landing at tatsu's feet before disappearing in a puff of smoke, replaced by a log.

"Ugh... Kawarimi. That jutsu really gets on my nerves, but luckily..."

Tatsu made a few seals, and the log in front of him turned back into an astonished Kirema.

"...How!?"

Tatsu laughed quietly. "Kagi, you deal with the brats. I'm no good with kids, they always end up dead after I'm done with them."

Rikou felt a jerking sensation, causing her head to spin. A moment later, she found herself on the ground beside Ken and Kirema, staring up at a retreating Tatsu.

She gasped when she caught a glimpse of his face. His eyes were what scared her the most. They were completely black with no white, like a wild animal's, and they were unnaturally large. His hair, which was short and windswept, was olive greenish-brown. He had a Grass forehead protector, a slash through it, tied around his forehead, and the metal plate had two metal horns protruding from it. As he turned away, she also noticed he had no ears, instead a small hole in the side of his head, almost lizrd-like.

Rikou shifted, trying to run, but her legs were frozen. When she looked down, she found a chain binding her to the ground, a large lock holding it together. She jerked again, but it was no use.

"Hahaha, it's no use, little rats," said Kagi, still facing away and twirling his umbrella. It jingled again, and as Rikou examined it closely, she found several small chains hanging from it, each with a miniature key dangling from the end.

Kagi suddenly folded up his umbrella, replacing it across his back and turning to face them. Rikou stared in amazement at his body.

He was incredibly handsome, which was her first thought before she remembered her situation. He had a pouty face, almost childish, which was partially covered by his raven black bangs. His eyes were the exact same colour as hers, striking green orbs, and because of his face, he looked to be only around sixteen years old. But what struck her the most was his clothing and his body.

His body was covered in chains, criss-crossing his chest, wrapping around his arms, over his stomach and around his legs loosely, over the trenchcoat. Every once and awhile, the chain was connected to another with a lock, ranging in size from the ones on his arms which were only an inch long, to the giant one around his neck that seemed to weigh him down. At the bottom of each loop in the chains hung several keys, these larger than the ones on the umbrella, normal-sized. He had keychains for earings, about six or seven on each ear, lining the rim and reaching all the way up.

"Hmmm... This one looks familiar," said Kagi quietly. His handsome face broke into a grin, revealing stunningly white teeth. "The rat herself walked into the snakes mouth, hehehe..."

Rikou stared up into his face, frozen with fear. He reached forwards as the chains around her legs vanished, binding her arms instead and tightening as he pulled her off the ground, leaning close.

"Remember me?"

His wide, green eyes bored deep into her, his smooth, silky voice echoing through her head as he breathed into her face.

"No? Let's refresh your memory."

His eyes narrowed as he placed a hand over her right shoulder momentarily before removing it. Pain suddenly swallowed her up, tearing through her body, her mind, ripping at her nerves, burning her skin. She tried to scream, but a chain wrapped around her neck, cutting off any sound as she gagged. She remembered.

He had been one of those who had tortured her for endless hours as she hung from a cave wall in the dark, supported by wires that had run through her wrists. She remembered his falsely sweet voice, how he had managed to unlock her deepest and most dark secrets, but it hadn't been enough. She had failed to tell them what they were looking for, and had ended up making her own stories to avoid punishment.

Her body went limp as she was overcome with dizzyness, her shoulder burning still as the pain vanished. Kagi laughed softly, childlike. He brushed her black hair from her face, leaning even closer.

"Now you remember, don't you? We used to have so much fun... Hey, Tatsu, we should kill the other two, they know too much if they're with her."

Tatsu glanced at him from where he lay before standing and shuffling back over to Kagi. He grinned as well, revealing sharp, pointed fangs.

"Sure," he growled, brushing past Kagi and moving in front of the two other chuunin. He raised a hand, the sleeve of the trenchcoat slipping away to reveal scaled fingers and black claws. Blue fire erupted inches from Ken's face as he tried to move or call out, but the chains and locks held him to the ground.

Kagi laughed again as Tatsu let loose more blue flame, this time directly beside Kirema's foot. He repeated this over and over, nearing them inch by inch until Rikou couldn't stand to watch anymore.

"Ugh...Stop it!" she growled, noticing the chain had left her neck. Tatsu turned slightly.

"Don't worry, brat, you'll get to have some fun later. But for now, just watch your little friends suffer... huh-!?"

Tatsu suddenly jumped back along with Kagi, who dropped Rikou. She glanced over to where Ken and Kirema sat on the ground, still bound by chains, but in front of them stood two Anbu squads. Kagi and Tatsu backed away slightly.

"Geez, you play around too much, Kagi," muttered Tatsu, his claws covered back up as his black, beady eyes glared at his partner. Kagi raised an eyebrow before pulling out his umbrella and opening it.

"Dpn't blame me, dragon boy. Let's go, two squads is a bit too much attention for me," he said quietly, turning away and vanishing along with Tatsu. The chains around Rikou vanished as an Anbu moved forwards to help her back up.

"...Where did you come from?" she breathed, her head throbbing and her shoulder still burning.

"We were ordered to follow you in case the Akatsuki found you again. Looks like we stepped in just in time," said the Anbu. Ken and Kirema also stood, dusting themselves off.

"You three have to report to the Hokage-sama. We only arrived moments ago, so we do not know the whole story."

Ken coughed a few times. "Great," he muttered. "More interviewing.."

Rikou coughed a few more times before moving forwards along with the Anbu and Ken and Kirema, but something suddenly wrapped around her legs and up her arms. Chains and locks.

"Oops, almost forgot something," came Kagi's voice. He appeared behind her, grabbing her roughly before taking off just as Kirema turned to see if she was following.

"Rikou!"

The Anbu dashed after her in a flash, but it was too late. Kagi was too fast. He took to the trees, carrying her roughly under one arm as he dashed at a blinding pace through the forest, loosing the Anbu quickly.

Chains crawled up her throat, silencing her, and cutting off her breathing. Her body was in shock, she couldn't move her muscles at all as Kagi joined up with Tatsu further on, dashing alongside him further into the forest.

"Hurry up and get over here," rasped Tatsu. He had stopped at the edge of a large, boarded up well. Kagi landed next to him and glanced at the well.

"What's this for?"

"Argh!! Idiot!! Just get in!"

He pulled the board off the well and Kagi hopped over the edge, falling into the darkness before landing at in about an inch of water. Tatsu landed next to him, sending water spraying onto Rikou, and he twitched a finger, causing the board to slide back over the well's mouth. The world was suddenly swallowed up in a familiar darkness, the cold air wrapping around her body and freezing her heart.

The chains around her neck loosened slightly, allowing her to breath easier, but somehow still preventing her from calling out. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness as Kagi carried her further through the well, entering some kind of tunnel.

"What is this for?"

She heard Tatsu sigh in frustration again. "Idiot! We still have two more weeks before we have to meet with Itachi and Kisame and head back! And in that time, we need to find out where she's hidden the Gurehane and don't you want your keys back?"

"Oh, right. I forgot about those, but I still need them..."

Rikou was roughly lifted up and thrown onto the ground, skidding to a halt in the shallow water. She made out the shapes of Kagi and Tatsu a few feet away, looking down on her,

"Are we going to start now? Or should we wait for more orders?"

"If we wait, then we'll waste precious time. We have only two weeks left."

"Hah! Time means nothing to me," laughed Kagi in his falsely sweet voice.

"Yeah,yeah.But I'm not gonna live forever like you, so let's get going."

Kagi shifted, pulling a case from inside his trenchcoat, Tatsu doing the same. They opened the cases, pulling out something Rikou couldn't make out in the darkness.

"But... This time, we should secure it well. Last time, those other brats got her off too easily," muttered Tatsu, pulling more of whatever he was holding from the case and moving forwards.

"Get her up, Kagi," he barked roughly. Kagi mumbled something, tossing what he was holding to Tatsu before grabbing her roughly by the wrists. He ripped off her trenchcoat and her chuunin vest, leaving her in her black tanktop. He lifted her with amazing strength, pinning her against the wall as more chains slithered over her legs.

Tatsu stepped forwards, moving his hands forwards, but pausing. He laughed lightly, dropping them fully.

"Oi, brat, I'm going to warn you again in case you've forgotten. The more you scream, the more you'll pay."

Rikou's breath caught as several things happened in quick succession. Tatsu's hands darted forwards, slamming into hers as something sharp peirced her skin. She felt the cold metal burn clear through her palms and into the stone wall behind her, and she cried out in pain and shock.

"Ah, ah, ah... Remember what I said," said Tatsu, flashing his white fangs in the darkness as he dropped his hand and brought them up again. This time, she felt familiar wired weaving in and out of her flesh, wrapping tightly around her arms and wrists and securing her tigtly to the wall. She cried out again, and it died away to a faint whimper in the darkness.

"Takes you a long time to get the idea, huh?" said Kagi, releasing her. Her body fell a few inches before the wires and metal spikes stopped her roughly, straining her hands and causing great pain. She closed her eyes as she felt a warm liquid running down her arms.

"Kagi, you do this. I hate seeing alot of blood, it makes me sick," said Tatsu, turning away and leaving. Rikou's breaths slowed, her heart freezing with fear and her eyes opening wide to accomodate the pain.

"Now," said Kagi after Tatsu had left. "Let's start with some simple questions. What's your name?"

Rikou swallowed hard, knowing what was coming. But in training, she had been told to never give in, no matter what they asked. "...Why do you want to know?"

She felt pain burn into her side as a needle was inserted into her stomach. She moaned in pain, the familiar feeling of torture returning.

"Still the same as before... Too bad... What's your name?"

She said nothing, and another needle found it's way into her stomach. Kagi laughed.

"Don't worry, I'll avoid hitting any important internal organs. But if you don't start talking, then I'll raise the stakes."

There was a jingling as he moved sligtly, producing a kunai in his left hand. Rikou's eyes widened at the thought of what he was about to do, but she had no time to answer his question before he was dragging the knife down he arm, stopping at her elbow and twisting it. She gasped as the sharp pain erupted from her arm, sending jolts of pain through her chest and shoulder as more blood leaked down, hitting the water below her. Drip, drip...

"What's your name?"

"Rikou..." she choked out. "Gekkou Rikou..."

"Good," he said in his smooth voice. He removed one of the needles in her stomach. "Now, how old are you?"

Rikou gritted her teeth, not anwering.

"Oh? Well then..."

The needle went back into her side and she sighed in pain.

"How old are you?"

"Thirteen..."

The needle was pulled back out. "Okay... Now, let's try something harder..."

He stepped back and pulled out a long, curved knife from his cloak before stepping back forwards.

"Where is the Gurehane? The First's sword?"

"I...I don't know what you're talking about..."

The knife glowed deep red as he pressed it into her stomach, the metal heating to an incredibly high temperature and searing her skin as the tip slid into her body. She groaned lowly, her stomach muscles clenching and causing more pain to erupt.

"I really don't know," she forced out, her voice strained.

"Sure you do, think harder. I know you're smart."

He held the knife poised over her chest this time, and she raked her mind for an answer. But the knife found flesh again, sliding into her left shoulder and burning the wound it had just made shut with it's own heat.

"Ugh..." she searched harder, filtering through every bit of information. Then she remembered the book.

"Wait..." she rasped. He paused, holding the knife close enough to her stomach for the heat to be felt on the surface.

"...There's a book..."

He paused, flicking hair from his smooth-skinned face as he pulled the knife further back. "What kind of book?"

"I dunno... I has information in it about this sword thing..."

"Oh? Tell me."

Rikou paused, wondering if there was going to be a consequence for what she was about to tell him. When she found none, she went on. "There was something about a curse on the Gekkou clan... Some guy named Yami Kagi put it on a girl after she stole a sword and a key for him...

"Something about a disease... and crows, crow summons... Yami Kagi gave them a summoning scroll and some kind of chakra or something because they stole three of his keys..."

Kagi frowned slightly. "And?"

"I don't remember any more..."

"Was there anything else written? Perhaps in the back? About the location of the sword or the keys??"

Rikou grunted again, searching the back of her mind. "No..."

"Well, you'd better start thinking soon..."

The knife slid into her stomach againm burning her as it did this over and over. Kagi's soft voice echoing through the darkness for hours, asking the same things over and over. Her body soon surpassed the pain, going numb. Drip, drip, drip, drip...

"I'm tired..." muttered Kagi, yawning casually. There were tens of needles sticking out from her stomach, and her arms were bleeding freely. He lifted the curved knife, running the flat side down her arms and burning the cuts closed, stopping the bleeding. Drip...

"Uhh... You can just hang around here until I feel like playiing again... And please try to remember any other things about this book. 'Night!"

He disappeared, leaving her in the suffocating darkness and silence, hanging from her wrists against the cold, moist stone wall.

_So cold... so much pain... Not again... I don't want to... I don't want to go back into the darkness... so cold... Someone, come get me!! Kankuro!! Anyone! Ugh... My body..._

_Drip..._


	15. 15

Rikou had lost count of days, of nights. She hung from the same stone wall, the water below her dark red, her skin pale, her breathing shallow and strained. Several needles remained embedded in her body, arms, legs, stomach, chest, neck... Her head throbbed with every heartbeat, causing her vision to blurr and her head to spin. Her throat was dry, voice almost completely gone, and she hadn't eaten since capture.

Kagi stood a few feet off, eyeing her almost symathetically. He held on to the same burning blade, which he tossed up and down, catching it and throwing it.

"I really don't know what I'm going to do with you, Rikou-chan," he said in his falsely sweet voice. The sound drilled into her head painfully and she closed her eyes to try to shut it ou.

"If you don't start talking soon, it'll just get worse."

Tatsu appeared behind him suddenly, causing him to jump. 'Geez, watch it!"

"Shut up, Kagi. There are four full Anbu squads combing the forests for this kid, " he whispered. Rikou heard. "We should stop for a while and lay low until they leave."

"Oh... But what if they come here? Then they can simply take her away again."

"Then we should stay in this place... It'll only be for a few hours."

"Hours!?"

"Shh!" hissed Tatsu, slapping him.

"I can't sit around doing nothing for that long! This place is boring unless I'm playing with the brat here."

"Shut up!" he hissed again. Rikou heard voices from far off. They were speaking in hushed tones, calling out louder every once and awhile. She opened an eye warily, looking into the darkness.

"Shit..."

"We should go back towards the entrance and seal it," said Kagi casually. Tatsu looked as if he was having a mental breakdown.

"If they find her now, they'll have even more information," he rasped.

"Relax, dragon boy. Let's go seal it. There are many other ways to escape from," said Kagi. He replaced the knife in his trenchcoat. They suddenly vanished, leaving Rikou alone again. This was the fifth time the Anbu had come near here, but never this close.

She coughed a few times, her body shaking violently and re-opening the wounds in her hands and wrists painfully, causing the steady drip of blood to resume it's annoying rhythm.

Drip, drip, drip, crack.

She opened her other eye and looked around. There were sounds of yelling from near the entrance of the well, sounds of battle. Have they come to get me this time...?

Drip, drip, crack, srip, crack. Splash.

A large stone fell a few feet in front of her and she moved her eyes to look that way slowly. More stones fell from the ceiling, splashing as they created an island of rubble in the middle of the chamber. Suddenly, a ray of sunlight broke into the shadows, shattering the endless dark. Rikou closed her eyes to shield against the sudden change in lighting.

When she opened them a moment later, the hole had grown larger, but the light was blocked by shadows, two shadows. One dropped to the ground in front of her, landing in the water, and the other landed on the island of rubble. It took a moment for their faces to register in her mind.

"Rikou! Shit..." Kankuro moved over to her, splashing through the water as he looked her over. She squinted at him in the light, coughing once before letting her head drop again.

I thought the Sand betrayed Konoha... I never thought I'd be glad to see Kankuro again...

Kankuro stepped forwards, touching her hands gently as he grit his teeth angrily.

"I'm gonna kill them..."

"Hurry up, Kankuro!" Called Temari as she guarded the entrance.

"Yeah, yeah... Okay... Rikou, this is gonna hurt, but only for a second, alright?"

Rikou didn't have enough energy left to do anything. Just get me out of this place, she thought.

Kankuro reched up and began pulling out the wires, sliding them back out og her hands and wrists and letting the blood drip into the water below. She moaned quietly at the new pain, the raw flesh on her arms screaming at her. Kankuro threw away the bloody wires and began trying to pull out the metal spikes that were now the only things holding her up.

"They've beaten the clones, Kankuro! Hurry up!" Temari opened her fan, blocking the entrance as Tatsu's voice reached her ears, cursing as footsteps splashed closer. Temari swung her fan, creating a whirlwind and sending it towards the two Akatsuki, blowing them back momentarily.

Kankuro finally got a good hold on both of the spikes and pulled hard, pulling them from the stone and catching Rikou before she hit the ground. He twitched his fingers and the Karasu fell from the hole in the ceiling, hovering inches from him as he gave Rikou to it, sending it back up.

Rikou blinked as the full sunlight reached her eyes and the Karasu gently placed her on the forest floor. It suddenly turned it's head and fell back into the hole as the sounds of battle rose up from it. She heard Kankuro yell something, and a moment later, Temari was beside her, lifting her from the ground and taking off towards Konoha at a breakneck speed.

But Kankuro... He's still... Rikou turned her head, looking behind her as she saw Kankuro jump from the hole and push a large boulder over it before taking off after them, the Karasu draped across his back as he rejoined him. Before Rikou closed her eyes again, she noticed his shoulder was ripped open, the cuts running in the shape of claw-marks. Did Tatsu...?

Her eyes closed, shielding against the sun and the pain. Her mind was swimming with confusion and pain, but she tried her best to block it out as Temari rushed back to the village. She opened her eyes just as they burst through the hospital doors, a moment later, Rikou finding herself on a stretcher being carried into another room.

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly as many medical-nin began yelling at eachother, barking orders back and forth over her body as she was lifted onto a table. She felt a needle enter her body again, but instead of sending waves of pain washing over her, it completely numbed her skin. They began removing the wires and needles from her thin, emaciated body, placing each on a metal dish to the side.

When they finished removing everything, they moved to her hands and wrists, which had been momentarily bandaged. They began unbandaging them delicately, rikou gasping in pain as the anesthetics began to wear off. Tears leaked down her cheeks as they began operating, popping the crushed bones back into place or peicing together the shattered ones. She got another dose of anesthetic as a pair of tewwzers and a scalpel got to work on her left hand, the doctors quickly fixing it before the medical-nins stepped in to finish up.

Rikou jerked her hand back as they began working on it, pain flashing through her mind. She coughed a few times as the medical-nin gently pulled her hands back.

"Please, we need to finish up... just a few more minutes," said one, his voice echoing through her mind. She relaxed her muscles, her nerves feeling raw and overworked as they finished sealing and bandaging her arms. Some of the medical-nin began to dissapate as one of the doctors lifted her gently from the table, into a sitting position. She removed her bloodied tanktop, bandaging her stomcah, shoulders and chest before slipping a black hospital shirt over her thin frame.

After putting on a pair of clean white pants, the doctor lay her back on the table, calling over another and lifting her back onto the stretcher. But as they lifted her off the table, something inside of her jolted and she fell into a coughing fit. They placed her back on the table gently as she suddenly sat up, grbbing her stomach and coughing harder and harder until blood found it's way into her mouth.

"Shit," snapped the doctor, grabbing her shoulders and easing her back onto the table.

"She's a Gekkou, right?" asked the other one, leaning over her. The doctor holding her down indicated something behind her, and the man dashed over, wheeling a machine up beside the table. A moment later, Rikou found a breathing mask fastened over her mouth as she struggled for air, her airways seeming to close up.

This is... an attack? It's... It's really bad this time...

The doors to the hospital room burst open as Ken and Kirema almost fell onto the floor with a medical-nin clinging to them.

"I told you to keep out! She's in no condition to do anything at the-"

The medical-nin trying to restrain the other two chuunin suddenly noticed Rikou struggling on the table with the doctor holding her down.

"What's going on!? I thought she was going to be fine! This is..."

Rikou coughed again, blood spattering the inside of the mask as she tried to squeeze air into her lungs. The doctor hovering over her swore loudly, holding her down and rolling up her sleeve. The seal on her shoulder was burning green, the same shade as her eyes.

"Oh no- Someone find Doctor Terasu! Now!"

"Umm... Terasu's not here right now, she's on a house call in another village..."

The doctor over her growled, releasing her and spinning around to face the medical-nin. "Well, go find her!"

"She's on an important-"

"If we don't get her in here now, this kid's not gonna last ten minutes!"

"Ten minutes! But she's over an five hours away!"

"Just go!"

"Y-Yessir!"

A new team of medical-nin burst into the room as the first one left, and they began to rush Ken and Kirema out of the room. The doctor turned back to Rikou, pulling her t-shirt back off and leaving her in just her bandages. Rikou coughed again, squeezing her eyes shut as she felt the black markings burn across her skin again.

"Wait!"

The medical-nin trying to get Ken back out suddenly stopped. "I know how to deal with it! Just let me in!"

"You? You're just a kid. It took Terasu a lifetime to master her technique. She's the only one who can deal with Gekkou's."

"Ugh... Just let me in! I was on her team, I know how to stop it."

Rikou began shaking violently, breaking out coughing again, blood spattering the inside of the mask before running back into her mouth and clogging her airways. The doctor holding her down pulled off the breathing mask and grabbed a cloth, wiping up the blood and throwing it away.

"Damnit... Just let the kid in, if we don't do something, she's gonna go unconcious soon!"

Ken struggled against the medical-nin and they suddenly gave out, letting him fly towards the table where he pushed the other doctor away.

"Get over here, Kirema!"

Kirema pushed past another ninja and came up beside Ken. He reached forwards, grabbing Rikou's shoulders and holding her still as Ken fell into a wide stance, holding a seal and closing his eyes in concentration.

When he opened his eyes, his hands were glowing green. Rikou's eyes darted towards him warily as she struggled for breath. He made another series of seals, closing his eyes in deep concentration. Kirema lifted her into a sitting position as he opened his eyes, placing one hand on her back and one on her shoulder, over the seal. But something went wrong.

Rikou screamed as a pain she had never felt before ripped through every fibre in her body, burning her as it washed over her. Ken pulled back suddenly, taking a step back as he watched in horror. The black marking that stretched over her body suddenly began glowing green, the same as her seal, and she hunched forwards in pain.

"Shit... This is bad... She's never had an attack like this- What!? The seal is breaking!?"

Ken's face darkened as he thought harder. Rikou stopped yelling, her voice breaking off as she flopped back onto the table, brathing heavily and trying to cope with the pain. Ken sighed in frustration.

"...I'll have to seal it..."

"What? She taught you how to seal it?" Kirema had released his grasp on Rikou, she had gone very still as the green markings remained scattered across her body.

"Only patially... I can't let go once I seal it, so I'll have to hold it with my own chakra until Doctor Terasu arrives. Move..."

Kirema and the medical-nin moved aside as he stepped forwards, drawing a kunai and raising it. Without hesitation, he drew the knife across the palm of his right hand before replacing it in his weapon's pouch. Rikou was perfectly still, her eyes wide and staring up at the white ceiling as her chest rose and fell shallowly. Ken held his hand up, letting the blood drip off of his two extended fingers, his middle and pointer.

Starting from her shoulder, he bagan writing out the seal with his own blood, the writing moving off the table and onto the floor, even up part of the wall. It took him five minutes to finish it, and when he did, he jumped up onto the table, hunched over Rikou. He made a series of complicated seals, his forehead beaded with sweat, before pausing and lifting his bloodied hand.

"Menuri no Antan-kakki Kaihou no Jutsu!"

He placed his bloody palm over the green seal, the dark red writing flowing towards the seal as Ken grunted in pain, concentrating hard. The writing fully disappeared into the seal, but Ken kept his hand placed over it, green chakra visible on his palm, his eyes narrowed in pain.

"...Ken..." Rikou coughed once, looking into his strained face as he struggled to hold the seal. Her vision suddenly spun and she closed her eyes, falling into darkness and pain again.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_"Think about it, girl. Nine of the strongest shinobi known to this world, each an S-ranked missing-nin, each with some kind of bloodline or special ability... If we wanted to, we could kill anyone. Some of out members are at the Kage level, some could easily conquer a small village on their own._

_"For them to be called together for one purpose... They could easily overpower a village, possibly even one as large as Konoha. But, we are not yet together... we haven't been together for many years, ever since Orochimaru left the organization. We've been sent out in pairs to find sources of power to make Him stronger, to make the Akatsuki stronger. There are five sources we have found so far._

_"The first is Uzumaki Naruto, from here in Konoha. We want him for the Kyubi's chakra. The second is you, Rikou. We want you for the Dark Chakra of the crow that Kagi cursed you with... But he can't remember exactly what he did, so we have no way to get it from you unless we torture it out. The third is Tenshi and Gyou, the twins from the hidden Cloud with the demon wolf brothers, Oniba and Dokuga sealed within them."_

_"Maybe we shouldn't be telling her this..."_

_"Doesn't matter, we're close to finding it, then we'll kill her after... Anyways, then theres that Kijo kid from the Hidden Stone with his powerful bloodline and Kamikaze from the Hidden Grass with the four-headed dragon demon, Shiryuu, sealed inside of her. So you see, there are many different power sources for us to choose from. But you... you are the most important piece... the one that we absolutely must aquire._

_"Out of all of these people, you have the most power, believe it or not. If you ever find out how to release the Dark Chakra at will and control it, you would be one of the most powerful known shinobi on this planet. On top of that, although the actual demon isn't sealed in you, you have Shikon, the crow demon's spirit within you. Once we find out how to manipulate that, we'll have no use for you..."_

Rikou began to remember the words she had heard from the four Akatsuki in the darkness a year ago, right before she had been rescued by the Sand. For some reason, parts of her memory had always been missing, leaving gaps full of darkness and pain.

"...Yeah, I know... the poor kid, the doctors said she has only five years left... no one should have to go through that much suffering. She'll have to live her life in fear, watching her back. They don't know for sure, but they think she has two years before she had to be kept in the hospital permanently. The special jounin in charge of interrogations are saying that no amount of therapy can ease her pain now," the voice of a woman reached Rikou's ears as footsteps pounded through her head.

"How much longer will she be unconcious for?"

"Well, it was predicted she would be awake by last friday, but more damage was done to her body then first thought.... She should be up soon though. But if she's up, she's in no condition to be walking around yet."

"Hmm... Well, when she's awake, I need to speak to her... There are many people who need information from her right now."

The door to the room opened and Rikou squeezed her eyes shut tighter, trying to block out the noise. I don't want to wake up yet... I'm so tired... I can't even get back to sleep...

"Ah.. She's still asleep," came a familiar voice, echoing through her mind.

She opened an eye warily to see a jounin vest retreating from the room. "...K-Kanzu?"

"Hn? Oh, you're awake!" Her sensei stepped back into the room, whispering something to the nurse as the door closed behind him. He pulled up a chair and sat down beside her bed.

"How are you feeling?"

Rikou opened her other eye and looked at him clearly. "My arms are..."

She held them up shakily, trying to move her hands. They were heavily bandaged and she couldn't feel her hands, let alone her fingers. 'What happened...?"

"The Sand brought you back. Poor Ken, he was asleep for a week after holding that seal... He held it for five hours."

"The Sand?"

"It's a complicated story... But basically, the Kazekage was tricked into betraying Konoha. They've signed another peace treaty with us though."

"Complicated story...? ... Who is Orochimaru" she asked absent-mindedly, remembering the words of the akatsuki. "Ever since Orochimaru left the organization... That's what they told me before."

"What!? You know about Orochimaru!?"

Rikou flinched at his volume level, closing her eyes. "Not so loud..."

"Sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Can you close the curtains... It's too bright," she whispered, pushing herself up into a sitting position on her pillows. Kazu stood and pulled the curtains shut before flopping back into his chair.

"What do you know about Orochimaru?" Rikou turned her head slightly, looking directly at Kanzu as he examined her.

"...He was a member of the Akatsuki, but not the leader or the most powerful... I remembered something."

Kanzu raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"When I was asleep... I remembered something about what they said last time... Their plans... What they are planning... What they want me and Naruto for... They're looking for new sources for power."

Kanzu was sitting forwards, looking at her intently as she spoke. "Rikou... You will need to report everything to me now. But first, I need to ask you about a book that Kirema and Ken mentioned to me. We need this book, Rikou."

"...Book? Right... I remember. It's in my closet. On the floor."

"Alright... Now please tell me everything you remember right away before you forget."

Rikou sighed, closing her eyes warily before making a unproffessional report. It took about half an hour of explaining, and another twenty minutes of questioning, which tired her out completely. When she finished answering the last question, there was a long silence.

Rikou's head was throbbing painfully again as she examined her body, moving her legs and feet and sighing.

"I feel like I'm lost, Kanzu... It's like there's no where left to go. Like things just keep repeating themselves..."

Kanzu looked at her sadly, not knowing what to say. Rikou turned her head towards him again, her mind working hard again.

"Wait... If the Anbu were active because of Orochimaru... And the Akatsuki want to get back at him... But Orochimaru needs something from Konoha, then he'll be staying near the village. If the Akatsuki attack, then it will most likely be in Konoha, right?"

"... Your probably right."

She dropped her head back to the bed, staring down at the white sheets. "Kanzu-sensei... What did the doctors say about my condition?"

"Umm... I don't think I'm the one to tell you that... At least not yet."

Rikou narrowed her eyes slightly. "It's something bad, isn't it? Please tell me. I want to know, it's my life."

Kanzu sighed, burying his face in his hands. "Fine... Doctor Terasu estimated that you still have two years until you'll have to be kept here, but she said... She said that that attack took a year off of you life."

"So now I only have four years left? That's not so bad... It means I can get out of this world faster."

"Your so pessimistic, Rikou. Lighten up. The predictions are just predictions, estimations... They're usually wrong... Anyways, you should get some sleep."

Rikou sighed, laying back down on the fluffy pillows and staring up at the ceiling as Kanzu stood and left the room in silence. Rikou's head slowly stopped throbbing as she slipped away again, back to the memories.


	16. 16

Another crow landed a few feet away from her, but she kept her eyes fixed on one name that had been etched into the stone on the memorial. Gekkou Hayate. She remembered when his name had been at the very bottom, the newest one placed on the list, but now there were many names following his. It had been three years since the war with the Sand and the Sound.

The doctors had been wron when they told her she had two years until permanent hospitalization. She was still living as a shinobi. She had recently been promoted to Anbu a few months ago, and had been promoted to Special Jounin at the beginning of last year, when she was fifteen. Kanzu had new gennin, Ken was an experienced special jounin and medical-nin, and Kirema, who was now seventeen, was a powerful jounin.

Her condition had been going steadily downhill since when she had last been captured. She had many different types of medication she had to take every morning or night to keep her alive now. But she had grown stronger alaong with Ken and Kirema this time, she now knew all five dances and used a ninja-to as her weapon.

Rikou had grown alot in the last two years, her hair growing out longer, reaching past her shoulders. She would have been one of the most beautiful girls in Konoha, had the sickness not affected her as much. Her skin was pale and she had small bags under her eyes, which were still the same striking green colour. She wore her black forehead protector bandana style, with a few peices of hair hanging out the front in her eyes, the rest pushed further back.

She had also abandoned her trenchcoat, instead wearing a skin-tight black outfit and long, black gloves. The bottom half of her face was usually covered up with a black face-mask, although she didn't wear it constantly, leaving only her eyes visible. She also carried her brother's ninja-to, ever present, across her back.

Sighing, she stood from her crouch, causing a few of the crows around her to hop away. They had recenlt started following her, and she now had four or five that were almost constantly with her. Before she left, however, she glanced at one of the crows, thinking about what she had read years ago. A little post-script at the end of the last paragraph.

_'The crows will always lead the Gekkou's through anything. They will show the location of any item or find a person when lost. Always trust in the crows.'_ She held out her hand to one of the crows, stroking it gently and thinking about the words carefully. When she found no explaination, she turned and vanished, dashing back to her apartment. She had a mission today.

When she reached her small apartment, she stepped in slowly, leaving the lights off and moving to one of the walls. She had hung her three Anbu masks on the far wall, a blue racoon mask, a red tiger mask, and a purple bird mask. Her brother's masks remained in the closet. Below the three Anbu masks was the one thing she had worked hard to get.

Her green orbs traced the paths of the black designs that stood out on the white surface of the mask, curving up and around in intricate swirls. Her Hunter-nin mask. On the desk below it rested a small case, which she moved over to and opened, checking the contents.

There were many long, metal senbon needles neatly arranged from smallest to largest. Below them were many different pairs of tweezers, knives, scalpels, peices of metal and other tools, all neatly organized. She folded it up and attatched it around her waist. She then grabbed a pre-packed backpack ful of supplies and slung it over her shoulder, before removing her headprotector and replacing it with a plain black bandana.

She didn't like to use senbon as weapons, but she was fairly accurate with them, so she would often resort to using them in battle. Lifting her black and white hunter-nin mask from the wall, she pulled it over her face, attaching it at the back. She quickly stuffed a number of pill containers into a black side pouch, closing it securely before heading back out, locking the door behind her.

She dashed out of the building quickly, taking to the rooftops and heading for the edge of town where she would be meeting three other Hunter-nin. This was a mission she really didn't want to go on, but the pay was extremely good, and they needed her above all else to guide the other three shinobi.

The sun was about to set, and the shadows were taking over the village, so Rikou managed to keep hidden as she left the village walls, landing in the forest below and heading a bit further in. In a tree to her left, she noticed one of her team-mates sitting lazily in the shade, his blue and white mask hiding his face. But Rikou knew who it was.

"Where are the other two, Ken?"

"Oh, you're here. Neji just went to find Shikamaru, he should be back soon," he said quietly. He still wore his completely white trenchcoat, and he had grown much taller and more muscled. He had cut his hair shorter, and it now stood in small, silvery-white spikes that looked as if his head was covered in frost.

Rikou leaned against a tree patiently, shivering slightly in the cold autumn air._ Winter is coming soon, _she thought. _I won't make it through it so easily this year._

A crow laded a few feet away, eyeing her before gliding onto her shoulder and nestling close for warmth. There was a soft whoosh of air as to other ninja landed beside her in crouches, one with a purple and white mask and the other's red and white.

"Are you guys ready now?" asked Ken in a bored voice, still lazing back against the tree.

"Yeah, let's get this over with," said Shikamaru, he was wearing the purple and white mask and was the team leader. Ken dropped from the tree branch, slinging his small pack over a shoulder and joining them. Rikou remained against the tree, looking out through the eye-slits in her mask.

"What's the plan?" asked Neji, standing as well. Shikamaru began planning out their movements, giving them their instructions as if he did this every day.

"Alright... Neji, you will be spending most of the time in the back and using you Byakugan to scout behind us. Ken, you will also spend more time towards the back to watch over me and Rikou un case of an ambush, you're the medical-nin and we need you to stay uninjured.

"Rikou will be leading us most of the way, or giving me directions so I will lead. When we're travelling, we'll travel in the D formation with me leading, Rikou behind me, Ken behind her and Neji in the back. I will watch the front, Neji the back, Rikou the left and Ken the right. When we near the destination, I will switch with Rikou and she will lead.

"If an enemy is sensed nearby, we will switch to formation A, but if we are currently looking for the location in question, we will take up formation B instead. If there are no enemies and we are near the location, we will switch to scouting in formation C, or split into groups Ue and Tei to spread out more. Now, Rikou, please show us these locations."

Rikou sighed, pushing her body off of the tree she was leaning on and moving forwards to join them, falling into a crouch. She drew a long senbon needle and began to draw a map of the shinobi countries into the dirt.

"Umm... There are four locations where they could currenlt be hiding according to my information. The two most likely locations are here, on the border of the Sound and the Leaf, and here, just inside the border of the Cloud. These are the two most recent locations..."

She marked the locations in the dirt as 1 and 2, circling them. "The other two were locations from four years ago, whe I was captured and tortured. I don't clearly remember, but it was either on the border of the Sand and Grass, or morewesterly on the border of the Sand, Grass and Rain. If they aren't in any of these locations, we can hunt them down individually, or at least in pairs, but I'll give you that information only if these locations are uninhabited."

She circled the last two locations as 3 and 4 before wiping off the senbon and replacing it in her weapon's pouch. Shikamaru paused, thinking hard as he eyed the map.

"Alright... We'll go to them in this order: 2, 1, 3, 4. So, we'll be heading to the Cloud first, I'll lead in D formation until Rikou tells us to stop, and then she'll take the lead. Let's go, we'll only be travelling by night," said Shikamaru, standing and sighing.

Rikou coughed lightly and adjusted her face mask under the mask before falling into place behind Shikamaru. Shikamaru raised his hand and waited for the others to fall into position before turning it slightly and taking of northeast towards the Cloud. The sun was almost fully set, it would take them two nights to reach their destination. They were off on their hunt for the Akatsuki.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was early on the second morning of travelling, and the sun had not yet risin, although the horizon was beginning to pale. Shikamaru held up his hand in the darkness, signalling for Rikou to take the lead. She sped up, passing him and taking the lead as the group slowed down slightly.

Rikou scanned the terrain, the forest ahead giving out into a vast field. She paused at the edge of the forest, raising her hand and telling the others to halt. She filed through the different pieces of information she had collected on the Organization, trying to place the location.

"Wait here," she ordered, breaking her cover and heading into the open. The field had several large, almost house-sized, stoned scattered across it, and she used them as cover, darting through the shadows.

Pausing at a particularly large rock, she jumped on top of it, raising herself ten extra feet off the ground where she stood. The view was breathtaking, the moonlight from the almost full mon painting everything silver. The grass seemed to blow as one, looking almost like an ocean as the wind blew in waves. Rikou shivered, ignoring the scenery and finally finding what she was looking for.

Another gust of wind kicked up, blowing the grass in waves, but the wave was broken at one point by something sticking up under the grass. She marked the rock she was on in her mind before vanishing, dashing back to the forest edge and crouching in a tree, looking around for the others.

"Did you find anything?" came Shikamaru's voice to her left. She nodded.

"I think I found it. Follow me," she whispered, taking off back to the rock. She landed in a crouch, alone, but she was soon joined by the other three, crouching around her. Shikamaru nodded and she glanced around for a moment, picking out the disturbance in the grass and taking off again in that direction.

She landed in a crouch in the tall grass, and being the smallest in the group, it rose completely over her head, concealing her completely. The other three joined her and they surveyed the second location she had mentioned earlier.

It consisted of a single rock, about the size of a door and was over a foot thick. Rikou moved aside as Neji and Ken began trying to lift it, soon joined by Shikamaru. It moved an inch, dirt and dust falling off of it as they struggled to lift it, finally moving it up enough. But that was as far as they could move it, only a foot off the ground. Before they dropped it, Rikou looked into a large hole, a tunnel that went deep underground.

"I can see," she said. "Lift it again and let me go in, I'm the smallest."

"What if there are people in there? What if they see you?"

"The underground system is bigger than you think. There are many entrances and different caverns and it is highly unlikely that they would be near this point anyways," she argued against Ken. He sighed and looked over to Shikamaru.

"Why can't we find another entrance then?" he asked, looking at Rikou.

"Umm... The other entrances need to be opened from the inside, except for one other, but that one is well hidden, underwater somewhere."

Shikamaru looked up at the stars, thinking hard. 'We have no choice then. Let's lift this again."

The three male shinobi grasped the edges of the large stone, forcing it slowly up again. Rikou removed her backpack and slid feet-first into the one-foot opening, wriggling her way into the darkness.

"Hurry Rikou! We can't hold it any longer!"

Rikou ripped off her weapons pouch and tossed it out, buying her some extra space and allowing her to slide into the darkness. The stone above her dropped loudly as she lay in the dark, catching her breath for a moment. When her eyes adjusted to the black void around her, she slid forwards slightly, but suddenly couldn't stop.

She fell forwards, but managed to slow her fall by bringing chakra to her feet and hands. It was no use though, because a moment later, the tunnel dropped off completely and she pitched forwards into a freefall, stifling a scream.

She fell for only a few moments, but it terrified her because she couldn't see the edges or the bottom. She landed painfully on her side, narrowly missing something sharp and white that stuck up from the ground an inch from her eye. She swallowed hard and pushed herself back into a crouch, looking around curiously.

She had been held in a similar chamber for some time, it was kind of like a level one torture chamber. But apperently, the ones being tortured here had died long ago, leaving only a few bones. She looked around a bit longer before standing. She moved over to a doorway which was covered in cobwebs, which she igneored, brushing past them.

She weaved carefully in and out of tunnels in no particular order, looking for entrances for over an hour, when she began to wonder if the others were worrying about her. Her eyes were now well suited to the darkness, and she managed to pick out a slight disturbance in the ceiling.

It was a stone hatch. She stared up at it for a while longer before bringing chakra to her feet and walking up the wall and across the ceiling. She paused for a moment before finding a hand hold on the hatch, pulling hard. The hatch wasn't as hard to open as she had thought, and she almost fell on her face as it flung her earthwards. Climbing back onto the ceiling, she looked up, light shining in her eyes.

There was a rough, wooden ladder running up the side of the hole, and she grabbed the bottom rung, starting to climb back into the morning. She popped her head from the ground and climbed out fully, standing and looking around.

"Took you long enough," came Ken's voice, inches from her ear. She spun around and saw the three other Hunter-nin standing with their arms crossed.

"...Sorry. It's bigger than I thought..."

"Is there anything down there?"

"...No," she said quietly.

She took a few steps forwards, but the other three suddenly jumped back, pulling out their weapons. An arm wrapped around Rikou's waist and a hand armed with nekotes dug into her neck, immobilizing her.

She struggled for a moment until whoever was behind her tightened their grip, almost suffocating her. She looked around, noticing that Shikamaru and Ken had disappeared, leaving only Neji facing her.

"Let her go," he said dangerously, raising eight senbon and glaring at them through his mask.

"How did you find this place?" asked the person holding her. His voice was low and dangerous to match Neji's. Neji said nothing as Rikou struggled harder, thinking of a solution. Moving quickly, she twisted ackwardly, catching the man's shins and spinning him onto the ground, her falling on top rougly where she drew her ninjato and pressed it ino his throat. But he was fast. He also held a knife to her throat, making it impossible for either of them to move.

Suddenly, her body stopped moving, freezing up. As she looked into the face of her attacker, she saw his eyes darting around in confusion, and she understood. Her legs began moving against her will, forcing her to stand along with the man. She noticed he had a Leaf head protector as her body turned to face Shikamaru's.

Her body relaxed as he released the Shadow Imitation jutsu from her body, allowing her to move away, joining Neji. Ken appeared as well, beside Shikamaru.

"Who are you? Why are you in the Cloud?"

The Leaf-nin said nothing, glaring at Shikamaru.

"He's not an Akatsuki," said Rikou, looking him over. He had no slash through his forehead protector and wore no Akatsuki robe.

Ken eyed him suspiciously. "You're... Kamunabi Oroshi from the Leaf, a missing-nin who ran a few years ago, after the war."

The missing-nin growled dangerously as Rikou vanished, reapppearing beside Shikamaru and whispering into his ear.

'It's not part of the mission... But he is a missing-nin from our village, so we should dispose of him, right?"

"Hn... I guess we should," muttered Shikamaru. "It's just so troublesome to get rid of the body."

The sun was higher up now as they stood in silence. Shikamaru made his move.

"Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu!"

The shadow around the missing-nin's feet crawled up his body, taking the form of hands as they moved up his body and grabbed his neck, strangling the air from his body until he slumped over. The shadow retreated and his body slumped to the ground, dead.

Geez, these guys... Shikamaru can kill so easily, she thought, eyeing the body.

Ken examined the body for a moment before lifting it and heading off towards the forest, followed by the other three. Rikou hated this part, it made her feel sick. Ken seemed to notice her dicomfort, and stopped preparing to dispose of it.

"If you don't like this then you don't need to watch," he said quietly. Rikou backed away thankfully, turning and walking into the forest. She leaned up against a tree, facing away as she slumped to the ground. It took them about an hour to dispose of the body completely, and Ken came over to her after.

"Rikou, we need some crows to finish up," he said, his hands covered in blood, but his white trenchcoat unstained. Rikou glared at him through the mask, thinking about whether or not she should summon some crows, and finally diciding to. Still sitting on the ground, she half-heartedly bit her thumb, making a few seals before placing her hand on the forest floor beside her.

"Kuchyose no jutsu," she muttered, forcing chakra to the hand. There was a puff of smoke and a large crow appeared beside her.

"You again? What do you want now?"

"Another body, Kuro. You can call others, but don't attract too much attention," she muttered. The dark bird seemed to perk up a bit as it took off, flying towards the body and cawing. A few minutes later, there were a total of eight crows gourging themselves on the leftover organs. Rikou almost gagged thinking about it, but they were finished quickly and she was able to go back over to the small clearing.

The clearing had no signs left of the body, no blood even. Neji was packing up his own case of tools and Shikamaru came up to her.

"Here," he said, handing her her bag and weapon's pouch. She took them and re-attatched them, slinging the bag over her shoulder.

"Thanks," she muttered, turning away. The sun was getting higher. "Shouldn't we set up camp?"

"Yeah, Neji already scouted out an area and found a suitable area to spend the day."

They slowly followed Neji to a small, concealed clearing, setting up camp and lazing around, eating a small amount of food. Rikou began coughing, but it wasn't an attack, she hadn't had one for a few months now. She shivered, the cold autumn air whistling through the partially bare branches of the trees around her.

Rikou jumped into a tree, leaning against the trunk and coughing again as she brought her legs up, still shivering. _I'm so tired, _she thought, slipping away without even getting in a bite of food._ Tomorrow I'm going to be wasted._


	17. 17

The last two locations had turned out no results, leaving their hopes resting on the last location, the one on the borders of the Grass, Rain and Sand. Rikou had already scouted it out, and they were now about to enter it. It consisted of a large cave, which normally would have been easily accesible, had it not been located underwater.

The four hunter-nin slipped into the cold water of the lake in complete silence. Rikou took a deep breath before sumberging her head in the cold liquid, swimming quickly to the underwater entrance. The cave's mouth consisted of a large, gaping darkness that swallowed her up as she swam into it, following Ken. He had taken off his white trenchcoat and hidden it above ground along with their other supplies, but he still wore white and was easy to follow.

Just as Rikou thought she was going to suffocate, she saw something splashing ahead and picked out Ken getting out of the freezing water. She kicked faster, her lungs almost completely empty. Just before she reached the surface, her instincs kicked in and she opened her mouth, breathing in the icey water and coughing it out as she broke the surface.

Ken grabbed her arm and helped her out, where she joined Shikamaru gasping for breath on the cold stone floor. She swallowed hard, getting her breathing under control and sitting up, surveying the cave. She instantly recognized it, and when she did she almost fell back into the water as she suddenly stood. This is... This is the exact same cave that I was...

"What is it?" asked Neji, looking around as well. She coughed a few times, her eyes darting around nervously at the familiar feeling she got.

"This is the exact same cave... I remember, I spent an entire year here," she said quietly, glancing around. The place seemed deserted.

She moved slightly, stepping forward and leading them into the next room. She remembered four rooms, one was the one they had just been in, another was where the Akatsuki had stayed when not on missions, the third was a kind of torture room, and the third was a serious torture and interogation room where she had spent most of her time. The whole place was actually alot smaller than the last locations, but it had a different feel to it, more dangerous and dark.

They entered the first torture room, the ground scattered with abandoned torture instruments, bones, chains and a few blank scrolls. She swallowed hard, stepping past a skull and heading into the last room, her room, the one she had been kept in.

She froze and fell to the floor as the memories poured back to her. Looking around at the walls, which stretched higher than the previous room's, she shivered as the other three came up beside her, gasping in horror.

Hundreds and hundreds of instruments were neatly arranged on the walls, long poles, wires, knives, needles, tweezers, metal spikes, chains, screws and even, in one corner, a small burner where they used to heat things and burn her with them. One wall was permanently stained red, the dried blood spattering the wall and drying in pools on the floor, where every once and a while a footprint tracked it across the floor.

About eight feet off the ground were a number of wires and two metal spikes tangled in them where Kankuro had freed her last time. She stood and pulled off her mask, stepping forwards slightly as she remembered every single detail, every moment of blinding pain.

"That's where they pinned me to the wall," she said quietly, moving over to the wall and touching it. It was covered with drops of moisture and a bit of blood came off with it as she pulled her hand back suddenly.

_'Idiot, if you hit an organ playing with her like that, we'll never get any information out of her...'_

She looked to the left where there had always been someone watching as she suffered, often laughing.

_'Hahahaha!!! Look at her burn!'_

Pain flashed across her arms as she remembered the countless hours she spent alone, stewing in her own blood and listening to the voices in the back of her mind that were telling her to bite off her tongue and commit suicide.

_'Bite off your tongue, and your team mates get it.'_

Rikou spun around again, looking into the corner where they had hung her two team mates. They had no torture, but they were treated worse if she tried to do anything other than fully cooperate.

_'Have you ever seen it rain blood? I'll spill his intestines at your feet and it'll be all your fault.'_

She remembered how they had killed her team mate, cutting open his stomach with a dull sword and letting him bleed to death at her feet slowly.

_'Look what you made me do, now both of them are dead. You got me excited and now look who pays with their blood.'_

"Can we go now? I feel sick..."

Ken eyed her for a moment as the others continued staring at the wall in horror. "Are you alright, Rikou?"

She shook her head, her vision turning red with her teamate's blood as she remembered how it had splattered all over her. She covered her mouth, remembering how he had bled to death with his internal organs littering the floor before him. The utter and disbelieving horror in his eyes that she remembered the instant before he had died.

"I can't take this. Let's go," she rasped, pushing herself up and running from the room. She suddenly froze as a familiar tingling crawled up her spine and opened her eyes wide in fear. She skidded to a halt and ran back in the other direction, crashing into Neji and falling down.

"They're coming back... I don't want to be stuck here again.... I can't take it!"

"Calm down... There's no one there, Rikou," said Ken, looking into the darkness. Neji helped her from the ground and she looked after him, the feeling growing stronger.

"Let's go," said Shikamaru, eyeing the walls.

"I really think we shouldn't go back there..."

"There's no one there, we would have sensed their chakra by now," argued Ken.

"I really really think we should hide.... The entrance... The entrance is blocked," she whispered, backing away.

Shikamaru moaned, turning to Neji. "Geez, how troublesome. Neji, use your Byakugan and tell her there's no one there."

Neji brought his hands into a seal and shouted "Byakugan!"

There was a moment of silence as he looked into the darkness before turning off his bloodline, shaking his head. "No one."

"See?" said Shikamaru, stepping forwards.

"Ken! Please listen to me! I'm trained in the same things as you three, I know the signs that signal an enemy is near... Really, there's someone there, blocking the entrance!"

Ken grabbed her hand and pulled her forwards. "C'mon, Rikou. Neji would have seen something. It's just this place, the memories are getting to you."

Rikou let herself be pulled forwards for a moment, before putting her foot down hard. The other three turned to look at her oddly. Her mask was still off, and she was glaring angrily at them, her green eyes almost glowing in the darkness as she dashed in front of them, blocking their path, and set herself into an almost offensive pose, as if ready to attack them.

"I'm not going... This is exactly what happened last time. And you know what happened last time? My entire team was brutally slaughtered without a thought right before my eyes. I won't let you go, even if you have to kill me to get me out of here," she said, her voice low and dangerous.

Shikamaru was glaring back at her angrily through his mask. "The sun's going to rise if we don't leave now. Stop playing around."

Rikou didn't move, but closed her eyes, a tear leaking down her cheek and melting into her face mask as she turned to Ken. "Ken... Please believe me... Please."

Ken sighed in frustration, but turned away in thought. "Well... She probably has the best instinct here, so let's humour her for awhile."

Shikamaru grumbled something as Rikou dashed past them, back into the other room and looking up. The ceiling was completely dark at the top, a good place to hide. She ran up the wall, followed by the other three and climbed to the top, hiding in the darkness completely. She huddled close to Ken as the silence took over again, pressing her body absent-mindedly into his to ease her shaking.

Ken looked oddly at her, but shrugged it off and turned his eyes back to the dark room below. They remained there for a long time, before Shikamaru sighed and began heading back down.

"Let's go-"

"Get back up here, Shikamaru!" hissed Neji. Shikamaru didn't hesitate, he was back up beside him in a flash. Rikou began shaking as a shadow flickered across the floor before melting back into the dark.

It did this a few more times, flickering for a moment here or ther, but disappearing quickly every time. Rikou pressed herself into Ken further, sliding behind him and trying to tear her eyes away, but fear held them there. She felt the other three freeze as nine shapes appeared in the shadows, each wearing a black and red Akatsuki robe, and each, strangely, without a drop of water on them.

Rikou would have whimpered had Ken not spun around and grabbed her roughly, pressing a hand over her mouth. The nine shapes made no noise as they somehow communicated in the darkness, some taking instrument from the wall. They surrounded one shape who she assumed to be the leader, and she noticed that there were not nine, but eleven figures. The leader threw two small figures on the ground where they cried out.

They're just kids like me, she thought, looking down at the two boys as they whimpered. She noticed dark red blood leaking from them, pooling on the stone floor.

"We no longer need you two, Tenshi and Gyou... Now that we have the Demon Wolf brother's chakra, you two are useless. Kill them," rasped the leader, stepping back slightly. As the eight other shapes moved in for the kill, one of the boys suddenly burst into blue flame, screaming in pain.

"Oi, Tatsu, don't hog it all for yourself!"

The blue flame suddenly disappeared as the circle moved back slightly. She heard Tatsu laughing as the boy writhed in agony on the floor, moaning as the other looked on in horror.

"Hey, Hey... Why don't we let Itachi have some fun with them first.. He has his genjutsu!"

Itachi stepped forwards and even from her position, Rikou could see his sharingan glowing red in the darkness. Two other Akatsuki stepped forwards, grabbing the boys by their hair and forcing their heads up.

"Pay attention and look into his eyes."

There was a moment of silence, but it was broken by wild screaming that echoed through the chamber. It lasted only a moment before dying away again.

"Toushin, get rid of the smaller one," rasped the leader, a hint of laughter in his voice. A particulary large Akatsuki stepped forwards, drawing a gigantic sword and placing a foot on one of the boy's legs, pinning him easily before running the blade across his stomach, spilling his insides.

There was a chorus of laughter, but it died away along with the boy. The leader raised his hands, ending it suddenly and stepping forwards, grabbing the remaining boy by the shirt and lifting him off the ground. He placed a hand on the boy's face almost lovingly, but the boy began screaming in agony, writhing for a moment before falling away, being thrown beside the other.

"Now... We need to decide what to do next," came the leader's voice.

The Akatsuki moved back into a perfect circle around their leader, some still snickering. Rikou felt her chakra draining, but managed to keep up a steady flow.

"Kagi, come here," ordered the leader. A single figure stepped forward into the middle of the circle, his keys jingling and striking fear into Rikou's heart.

"Yes?"

"Why do you not have her yet?"

"The same gennin rescued her again, and they got away."

"I need the girl, Kagi. She is all I want right now. Either we torture the information out of her, or you remember what the hell you did wrong when you cursed her."

"I think I get the point. We dealt with the Sand that kept rescuing her, they're both dead now."

"I don't care! Do you understand how much I want her!? I need that power! I would trade in everything I have now to get it!"

"It's not my fault that you-"

Kagi cried out in pain suddenly, falling to the ground. "Yes, it is your fault! You have absolutely no memory! You can't even remember the name of the curse you put on their family! When I get my hands on Rikou again, I won't lose her! She's mine! If you fail to get her this time, I'll kill you."

"Hehehe... Yeah, I guess so."

"You have one more chance."

Kagi bowed and retreated to the edge of the circle, and that was the exact moment Rikou's chakra ran out. She slipped from the ceiling, falling a few inches before Ken's arms wrapped around her waist tightly, stopping her. The leader below was suddenly alert, glancing around at the slight noise she had made.

He looked around for awhile, but seemed to shrug it off, turning back to the circle of missing-nin and clearing his throat quietly.

"Let's get out of this place and head to Konoha. Orochimaru os about to make his move on the village with his new body, and we need to kill him when he is weakened by the Leaf's troops. If the Leaf interferes at all though, we'll crush them as well. Go!"

The eight shapes surrounding him suddenly vanished, but he remained for a moment, looking around. He looked directly at her where she hung, his eyes peircing the darkness but not seeing anything. He sighed and disappeared as well, his shadow flitting across the floor and out the door.

Rikou was perfectly still. Her eyes were riveted on the place where the leader had stood moments before, and they slowly moved across the bodies of the two boys who were in piles of blood and organs.

"We don't stand a chance against these guys... Especially not nine. We have to get back to Konoha to warn the Hokage-sama," muttered Shikamaru. Rikou began shaking again.

"They're going to kill me... They're after me and they won't stop... You heard them... I... I..."

"Quiet, Rikou. Let's get out of here right now," said Neji, walking back down the ceiling.

Shikamaru walked after him and Ken carried her down carefully, placing her on the ground where she stood shakily. And Kankuro, she thought, they killed him...? I was forbidden from seeing him at all after the war, he never even got a chnce to write, but I didn't want him to die...

"Rikou!" barked Shikamaru, dashing forwards. "Let's go!"

Rikou regained her senses and dashed after him, followed by Ken. She pulled her mask back on and slid into the water after Shikamaru, holding her breath and submerging herself fully and kicking through the darkness.

Her legs slowed down as her breath ran out and she sucked in a lung ful of air. She geabbed her throat and kept kicking half-heatredly, her heart slowing. But someone grabbed her and pulled her along with him, back to the surface where she coughed up water under her mask, Ken dragging her up onto the rocks. It seemed wetter outside than it was in the water itself. It was pouring rain and the wind was whipping in every direction.

Rikou coughed up more water before stabilizing her breathing. She forced her body off the ground and stood, facing Shikamaru.

"We have to leave immediately, the village is in danger," said Shikamaru urgently. They nodded, moving to the trees and grabbing their bags. Ken grabbed his trenchcoat and pulled it on, which only seemed to weigh him down because it was waterlogged.

Rikou's hair was whipping around in the wind as the pouring rain drenched her completely. She took her place in the B formation beside Shikamaru as they dashed off quickly, along the border of the Rain country towards the Grass.

They reached a deep canyon and began skirting it, following the path they had taken. Rikou dashed quickly along the edge as fast as she could to keep up with Shikamaru and hold her position, but the wind was slowing her down.

A gust suddenly whipped up from her left, throwing her off balance. She reached out and grabbed for a branch, but her hand closed around air as she pitched forwards into a freefall. The sudden change in gravity caused her head to spin and stole her breath away.

_Oh shit! What's happening!? Damn, I'm gonna... I'm gonna die... Right here... Right now!_


	18. 18

"Rikou!"

Rikou looked up as she fell away to see Ken reach out to grab her hand, missing miserably. He swore loudly as he was thrown off balance as well, pitching forwards along with her. The rain whipped across her mask, blowing through the eye slits and burning her eyes as she looked below her.

She felt Ken grab her arm and pull her close as he tried to bring chakra to his hands and stop their fall, but he had barely any left. Rikou pannicked, her breaths coming in gasps as she looked at her destination, a number of dead pine trees that stuck up like white spikes from the ground. A fire must have burned through this area sometime years ago.

She closed her eyes as her stomach sank, not wanting to see how this would end. She wished Ken hadn't reached out after her, he threw away his own life. She remembered a conversation she had had years ago with her sensei suddenly, the moment flashing through her mind as she fell.

_"There's no point in me becoming a chuunin. I only have five more years. What's the point of becoming a chuunin?"_

_"That's just another of your excuses, Rikou."_

_Rikou opened her eyes in shock. "An excuse?"_

_"Yes. Tell me, why did you join the acadamy in the first place?"_

_Rikou thought back to when she had been little, thinking hard for a reason. "Because I wanted to be able to protect others..."_

_"So, if you give up now, then wouldn't that make everything else that you've accomplished so far pointless? If you don't keep fighting, what would happen if something went wrong and you were unable to protect those around you?"_

_"... I don't know..."_

_"Everyone has to have something to look forwards to, a dream, a goal in life. Every ninja has to have something important to protect, otherwise there is no meaning behind their fighting, it becomes pointless. If I remember correctly, when you first joined this team, you never answered any of our questions. You never told us your likes or dislikes, your dreams, you skipped everything with a simple 'pass.' That means that for all these years, you have basically had no meaning in your life, but if you had no meaning then you wouldn't be here, would you? So what is your meaning, your reson to keep fighting? Why don't you just give up now?"_

_Rikou dropped her eyes to the ground, thinking hard. "...I don't know..."_

_"Yes, you do."_

_She closed her eyes, searching for a reason. She coughed quietly. "I'm not sure right now... before I thought it was to protect others, but now the ones I wanted to protect are all gone, all dead..."_

_Kanzu smiled slightly. "So your reason is still to protect them. There are still people to protect, on top of serving Konoha. You have to watch out for those two, Ken and Kirema, they can't take care of themselves. As long as you have a team, you have something to fight for."_

She swallowed hard, thinking how she would be failing to fufil her dream. It was her job to look out for Ken and Kirema, but now she would be failing.

"I'm sorry Ken," she whispered, her voice blowing away in the wind. Ken's mask had blown off, hanging off of his neck as his eyes grew wider in fear.

_'The hidden chakra, the Dark Chakra, can only be released by someone who is very experienced, but is a very powerful weapon. It is made by the mixing of the Shikon's chakra and regular chakra, and is brought on by feeling overwhelming emotion. The crow demon will release it's chakra to be used if it feels the current cursed child is in danger._

That chakra, she thought. If I could release it, I could stop the fall... But I don't know how!

She closed her eyes again and pulled Ken closer to her to try to nullify her fear. She pressed her face into his white trenchcoat, noticing her mask had blown behind her as well. Ken pulled her close and began whispering into her ear.

"Rikou, listen to me... I don't want you to be killed here, alright? Before we hit the ground, I want you to jump off of my body, alright? Rikou?"

She shook her head stubbornly. "You'll be killed."

Ken said nothing, but Rikou noticed the ground approaching fast. She held out her hand, tears streaming off her face.

"I don't want any more people to die because of me! I won't let it happen!!!"

Something flashed before her eyes, a pair of black wings. In the back of her head, she heard a voice.

_**Useless kid, can't even save yourself. You're the last and you can't save your family name. At least try.**_

_I am trying, _she thought angrily, the ground looming closer.

**Feh, useless. You know you'll be killed.**

She closed her eyes as the wings rustled through her mind again and she found herslef looking into a pair of beady, black eyes.

_You are..._

_**Yeah, unfortunately. I've been stuck here for many many generations, the idiot that sealed me here did it wrong and made us both immortal by taking years off of my host. So he'll never die and I'll never die.**_

_You have that chakra! _She looked head on at the crow demon, Shikon, as her body seemed to be engulfed in black flame, blacker than his own feathers.

_**So what?**_

_Give it to me, I am the last Gekkou and if I die then even you can't live on._

_**Give it to you...? I suppose I could... Fine.**_

The dark flames licked up around her, completely engulfing her as she felt her body's energy returning. She opened her eyes, feeling Ken holding her still, the ground coming up fast.

"I can see," she muttered. It was true. Her eyes had somehow fully adjusted to the dark, making it look almost like full daylight except for the dark flames surrounding her arms, her body.

She almost cried out in suprise as she willed the chakra to leave her body, forming a dome between her and the ground, licking up the sides of the canyon and cracking the rock easily. Rikou looked straight into the dead trees below her as they were blown away like toothpicks, before the chakra began eating away at the ground itself. She cried out, releasing even more chakra and slowing them down, resting them gently in the middle of the gigantic, burnt crater.

Rikou was breathing heavily as the chakra dissapated, leaving her on the ground beside Ken, breathing heavily.

"Geez... Scary..." he muttered, swallowing hard. His short, silvery-spiked hair was blown back and his mask had completely blown away. Rikou lay on her side, looking at her arm in disbelief, not because the slwweve was ripped and torn, but because....

"There are less scars..."

Ken pushed himself up, looking around him in disbelief as well. "Holy shit... look at the size of this crater!"

Rikou ran a hand over her forearm, feeling only a few raised scars left on her skin before looking up at what she had just done. "I... Did I do this?"

Rikou pushed herself up as well, her clothed dripping with rainwater. The crater was slowly filling up with water as well. She looked up at the distance they had just fallen, looking at the sides of the canyon where there were two slide marks. Her eyes darted to the ground beneath the slide marks where gigantic slabs od stone lay imbedded in the forest, reaching up higher than all of the trees.

Ken turned back to her, his hair dripping and handing in his face. "Okay, I don't know what you just did ther, but there's no way we can get all the way back up today... It's morning. We need to find somewhere more... concealed."

Rikou looked around tiredly, there didn't seem to be anywhere mre concealed. All the trees were dead, leaving nowhere for them to hide. But Ken grabbed her arm anyways, pulling her away and slowly appraching the edge of the crater. It took them awhile to climb up the steep sides, the mud causing them to slide back down every once and awhile, but they managed.

Byt the time they reached the dead trees, Rikou was exaughsted, drenched, mud-covered and utterly confused. Ken motioned her over to another tree where he slumped down, not caring about the mud anymore. Rikou slumped down beside him, noticing that for the first time ever, his trenchcoat was actually dirty. The bottoms were covered in mud, which was caked over his legs and hands.

"We should rest until tonight," he said quietly, pulling his trenchcoat tightly around him. Rikou huddled a few feet away, leaning against another tree and pulling up her knees. She shivered as the rain drenched her even more.

Rikou closed her eyes, starting to shake again. The cold was seeping into her very bones, taking away any heat that might have been there. She pressed herself further into the tree and squeezed her arms around her knees, burying her face in them and trying to get some sleep. She heard something to her right and Ken's voice reached her ears.

"Here... Move forwards," he said quietly. She lifted her head and moved away from the tree. To her suprise, Ken dropped down in the mud behind her, wrapping his coat around them both and pulling her into his chest, his arms wrapping around her thin waist. She tensed for a moment, not used to another person's touch, but relaxed slowly. The warmth slowly returned to her body, seeping back into her bones as she pressed herslef closer to him, closing her eyes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rikou woke in the darkness again, still nestled against Ken's chest under the trenchcoat. It had stopped raining, and the wind had died down considerably although it was still cold out. Rikou bent her neck back, looking into Ken's face and studying it carefully.

His face was unusually pale, his hair had dried and sprung back into it's usual spiked position. Looking closer, she noticed two paths of partially dried tears running down his cheeks, tracing a path down his chin. Rikou found herself noticing for the first time how handsome he was, she had never thought about it before.

Rikou stared at him for a long time until his eyelids twitched and he opened them, his crysta blue eyes fixing on her. They looked at eachother for a few moment before Rikou realized their position. She felt her face burn as she looked away, pushing herself off the ground and turning away, blushing furiously.

Ken yawned, wiping his cheeks and pulling his drenched coat back over his shoulders and standing as well. Rikou felt her face cool down and she turned around to face him again.

"We should find a way out of this place," said Ken quietly, looking up at the high canyon walls.

Rikou had thought about that the previous night, and had already decided on a plan of action. "Umm..." she said, coughing nervously as she glanced at him again. "I can probably summon the crows to get us back up. I can summon the head summon, Akurei, and ask him to fly us back up..."

Ken examined his trenchcoat, frowning slightly at the mud, before lifting his head and nodding. "Sure, if you have enough chakra left after... after blowing up half the forest."

Rikou turned away again, noticing her vision was still perfect in the darkness. She preformed the correct seals before biting her thumb and shouting "Kuchi-yose no jutsu!"

When she placed her hand on the ground, she felt the same, huge amount of black chakra pour from her body, leaking into the mud as she summoned the crow. _Does this mean... I'll have this chakra forever? How will I ever learn how to control this much energy at once?_

There was a large puff of smoke and Rikou found herself standing on the feathered head of a giant raven, the boss summon of the crows, Akurei, which literally meant 'evil spirit.' It was true, even Rikou, who usually got along with the crows, had trouble dealing with him sometimes.

"Oi, Rikou, what're you summoning me here for?"

"We need to get out of this canyon, Akurei-sama," she said quietly. The large raven blinked, looking around.

"'We'? You mean that muddy rat down there as well?"

"...Yes," she muttered. The crow laughed.

"Hah... Only for you, you know that? I wouldn't do this for anyone but you girl. But only to the top, you interupted my sleep so that's as far as I'll take you two."

She motioned for Ken to join her atop the soft, feathery head and the bird spread it's wings wide, stretching for a moment. It then brought them up high above it's head and brought them down again, sending chunks of debris flying everywhere as they took off into the night. It took the large bird only a few downstrokes to reach the top, where he left them in the exact spot where they had fallen.

"Looks like they left us a trail to follow," said Ken, pointing to a tree. There was an arrow slashed into the bark, pointing east.

"...Neji could probably see through the darkness," said Rikou, turning east as well.

"If we hurry, we can make it by tomorrow afternoon."

Rikou sighed, but broke out coughing halfway through. I think I'm getting sick from the cold, she thought, getting her breathing under control again. Ken glanced at her for a moment, before moving in front of her.

"Let's go," he muttered. Rikou nodded, taking off after him into the darkness. To her, everything appeared as clear as daylight. Rikou blinked a few times, trying to understand why she could suddenly see like this, but gave up and continued after Ken.

By the time the sun broke over the horizon, they were a long way past the Fire country's border, making their way towards Konoha and following the arrows. Ken stopped, flicking open a small compass from inside his pocet and checking their direction. He turned more southeast before continuing on.

About an hour and a half later, Rikou sighed inwardly with relief as she saw the walls of the Hidden Leaf rising up before, with no signs of war or attack. She easily jumped the wall with Ken and sped towards the Hokage's quarters.

"We've beaten them back, they must have set up camp or camped earlier due to the storm," said Ken, dashing along the rooftops beside her. Rikou raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"How do you know?"

"If they had already reported to the Hokage-sama, there would be Anbu out and the walls would be covered in shinobi, waiting for an attack. The security would be much tighter than this," he said. Rikou turned back to the roof, paying attention to where she was headed. The Hokage's quaters was nearing, and they jumped easily onto it's level, heading through the doors.

Two jounin met them inside and escorted them to the Hokage's room, openeing the door and closing it behind them. Rikou and Ken kneeled for a moment before her, until she told them to stand.

"You two... Where are the others?"

"We were separated, but they should be fine. We got caught in a storm and were blown off a cliff."

The Hokage eyed them for a moment. "Alright, make your report."

"We went to each of the four locations suggested by Rikou and investigated each thoroughly. The first turned out no Akatsuki, but we did find a former Leaf-nin hiding there, a missing-nin, and disposed of him. The next two locations turned out no clues about the wherabouts of the Organization.

"When we came to the fourth, however, it at first seemed deserted. Apperently it was the same cave Rikou had been kept in previously. We found a number of weapons, torture instruments, on the walls, but no missing-nin. When we were about to leave, Rikou stopped us and forced us to hide.

"Luckily, we finally listened and hid in the shadows of the high ceiling. After waiting for a few minutes, we noticed a shadow enter the room, followed by eight others. The Akatsuki had apperently come back to have a meeting.

"They brought two children with them and played with them for awhile before killing them. We realized nine was too much for us too take on, so we simply gathered information instead. After killing the children, they commenced with their brief meeting.

"The leader seemed bent on... on getting Rikou... He wants something from her, and he said that he'd do anything to get it. He punished one of the members, threatening to kill him if he didn't bring Rikou to him, before moving onto more important matters.

"First of all, Orochimaru has a new body and is planning to attack Konoha at any time now, but the Akatsuki want revenge and are going to wait until he is weakend before killing him. They said if Konoha gets in the way then they will crush us. And I believed them, they are unbelievably powerful.

"Hokage-sama, we need to prepare for the worst. If Orochimaru attacks us and catches us off guard, we will be at a disadvantage."

The Godaime thought hard for a long time, her face serious. There was a knock at the door, and one of the jounin's voices came through.

"Hokage-sama, the rest of the team has arrived."

"Let them in," she ordered, not lifting her head. The door opened and Shikamaru and Neji entered, bowing slightly and looking towards Rikou and Ken. They still wore their hunter-nin masks, unlike them, and appeared alot drier and less muddy.

"You two may leave, thank you for the report. Please file a copy in the other office, and then you're free to go," said the Hokage, indicating them. Rikou lowered her head respectfully and left the room.

She followed Ken into another room where he lifted a scroll from a drawer along with a pen and began to write out his report. He paused halfway through and turned to Rikou.

"What were the names of the Akatsuki that we know so far?"

"Umm... There's Uchiha Itachi, Yami Kagi, Kisame, Tatsu and that big guy with the sword, Toushin," she said quietly, looking out the window. Ken finished writing up the report and rolled it back up, filing it away in a cabinet.

"Do you want to go get something to eat? We haven't eaten properly for awhile, and I'm starved," he said, turning towards her.

Rikou paused for a moment. Is he asking me out...? She sighed, turning to face him. "Sure."

"What do you wanna get?"

Rikou fell into step beside him as they walked out of the building, heading back into town. "I don't know... Maybe we should get some sushi and bring Kirema some. He's probably training his team right now," she said, looking around at Konoha and thinking about Orochimaru.

"Sure," said Ken, kicking a rock in his path. "But let's get changed first... I need to get out of this coat."

Rikou nodded, looking over his helpless coat. It seemed permanently stained. Since Ken's house was closer, they went there first. She had never been in his house before, but she was amozed when she looked around.

It was incredibly clean and very large, the walls painted white and many windows facing in all directions. He had many swords hung on the walls, katanas, ninja-tos and a few other kinds of swords or knives, all polished and shining.

"You can wait here, I'll just be a few minutes," he said, indicating a chair. Rikou sat down at the table, resting her arms on it casually as he left the room, pulling shut the sliding door behind him. She looked around, turning to face a table by one of his couches. There were a number of pictures there.

Looking around, she noticed that framed pictures were everywhere, from the large ones on the walls to the smaller ones resting on the tables. She stood and looked around at them curiously. There were many of Ken and his team when they had been gennin, with Kanzu in the background grinning widely.

There were pictures of him and what remaining family he had, even a few of him as a baby with his parents holding him. In all the pictures of him as a child, there was also another woman in them, who Rikou guessed to be a sister. She looked to be around five years older then Ken and had the same silvery hair that she kept tied in a ponytail.

Rikou looked at some more of his pictures of his former team, and frowned slightly. I look so enthusiastic in these pictures, she thought sarcastically. She wasn't smiling in a single one, and her hair hung in her face, obscuring one of her eyes and making her look even darker.

There were also individual pictures of his team, Kanzu asleep while they were training, Ken getting whacked in the head with a fist Rikou assumed to be Kirema's. There was even a picture of Rikou smiling, which she didn't remember being taken, and another of Kirema and Ken fighting.

Something caught Rikou's eye and she moved to the other wall, looking up at a large display of pictures surrounding one picture in particular. The one in the middle was a picture of two medical-nin, a man and a woman, standing together in a hospital, smiling. She assumed they were his parents. Around the picture she was suprised at what she saw.

They were various pictures of Ken working with patients. From when he was a gennin watching other medical-nin work, to him passing a test to become a medical-nin in front of the fifth Hokage, the legendary medical-nin Tsunade. There was even a picture of him looking as if he was about to pass out as he smiled faintly, a picture of Rikou in the background and Terasu hovering over her.

Rikou moved back to one of the tables and looked at another family picture with him, his parents and the girl in it. She heard the door open behind her and turned to see Ken come out in a new, white trenchcoat, his forehead protector reattatched on his forehead.

"Who's that?" she asked, her curiosity getting the best of her. Ken stepped over, looking at the picture.

"That? Oh, that's my sister, Mikiri."

"Oh... Was she caught in the Demon War with your parents?"

"No... She wasn't a shinobi. She died when I was seven. Her boyfriend was an Uchiha and she was staying with him. When Itachi slaughtered the clan, she was killed as well."

Rikou turned around and looked him over."That's... Horrible..."

Ken shrugged it off, turning back to the door. "Let's go. I'm sure you want to get out of your clothes as well."

They walked over to Rikou's house quickly, and she opened the door to her small apartment. Ken sat on the bed as she went into the closet, pulling out a new outfit and grabbing her black jounin vest. As an afterthought, she pulled a black trenchcoat from it's hanger as well and moved into the bathroom to change.

Looking in the mirror, she decided to take a quick shower as well. As she stepped into the steaming water, she examined her body, noticing how there were only half the scars she had had before. She ran a hand over her arm and felt only a few raised scars. What happened? Rikou shrugged it off and washed her hair quickly.

She stepped out of the shower and dried herself off before changing into her clean clothes, hanging up her old outfit. She dried her hair and brushed the knots out of it, letting it fall into it's usual position with a peice hanging in front of her eyes. She opened the door, glancing at Ken, and grabbing her forehead protector, tying it bandana style over her head and flattening her hair further.

"Okay, let's go," she said, Ken stood up from the bed and followed her out, closing the door behind him. They walked down the busy streets, Ken leading her towards a sushi restaraunt where they ordered quickly, Ken paying for all three orders.

Rikou lifted her order along with Kirema's as they left for the training field that he was usually at, weaving through the trees until they found him leaning against a tree, watching his three-cell gennin team train.

"Hey, Kirema-_sensei_, we brought you lunch," said Ken, laughing at the unenthusiastic look on Kirema's face. Kirema turned to face them.

He had changed alot over the last years as well, him and Ken becoming even better friends. He wore a blue forehead protector tied bandana style over his head with the metal plate at the back and the cloth tied in the front. His pale blue hair hung in his face, covering his right eye entirely and reaching down to his chin. He had a long scar on his face that stretched from his right eyebrow, over the bridge of his nose and down to his left cheek, stopping at the jawbone. He had gotten it a year ago when he got mad at Ken and they ended up fighting, Ken having to use some of his more serious attacks and langing a blow on his face that would leave a mark for the rest of his life.

"Heh, you two look good together," he said in his usual greeting. "You look like Ying and Yang."

Ken laughed as Rikou threw him his lunch, where he caught it lightly in one hand, grinning still. Rikou leaned against a tree across from him, turning to look at the training gennins who still hadn't noticed them.

"How'd the mission go?"

Ken sighed, opening his lunch and breaking apart his chopsticks. "It was cold... And wet... And we found out that there are nine people who will stop at nothing to get Rikou. The leader seems almost obsessed with getting her."

Kirema stopped eating for a moment, looking at Rikou as she opened her own lunch. "So I guess you found the Akatsuki then."

"There's more," said Ken, leaning closer and whispering something into Kirema's ear.

"What!? Orochimaru-"

"Shh! What if your brats hear? I'm sure the Hokage will have fun dealing with a pannick if it gets out and the gennin and acadamy students know. But you know what this means... We'll be on duty until something happens."

Kirema nodded, looking out at the kids who were still training. Ken turned to Rikou. "You should be careful from now on. If they find you again, the-"

"Ken-sensei!"

Something small and brown ran into Ken, knocking him over and causing him to drop the rest of his lunch. The shape was joined by another as they began attacking him, wresling with him as he tried to defend against the two gennins. Ken suddenly began ticking them, causing them to fall back before he started chasing them around the training field.

"How immature," breathed Rikou. The third shape lened against a tree beside her, folding her arms across her chest as she watched her teammates try to catch Ken.

"How immature," breathed the gennin. Rikou's mouth twitched slightly in a smile. _Kirema's team reminds me of when we were gennin,_ she thought, watching as Ken gave up, falling to the ground in exaughstion. Kirema snorted.

"Geez, they like Ken more than they like me. That's sad-Hey! Be nice to him! He just got back from a long mission!" Kirema ran out onto the field where Ken stood facing the two gennin, one holding onto his katana which had been ripped off of him.

"Teach us more genjutsu!" called one of the boys, the one holding the katana. He propped it up against a tree as Kirema took Ken's place, letting him grab his katana back and head back to where Rikou was still standing. The third gennin, the one beside her, pushed off the tree and moved back into the clearing, joining her sensei as he whacked the other two over the heads.

"This peice of junk... I'm suprised it isn't broken yet," muttered Ken, wiping off his sword and reattatching it across his back.

"The only other sword I could use though is that Gurehane, but that's long lost."

"Isn't that the sword that was stolen?" asked Rikou, thinking hard.

"Yeah. But if you don't know where it is, then no one does. It's gone forever I guess."

Rikou paused in thought, thinking about the book that she had found three years ago, thinking about the small post-script. _'The crows will always lead the Gekkou's through anything. They will show the location of any item or find a person when lost. Always trust in the crows.'_

_They will show the location of any item...? Maybe..._ Rikou suddenly pushed herself off the tree, causing Ken to turn back to her curiously.

"Do you really want the sword?"

Ken blinked a few times. "I guess... But what...? Do you know where it is?"

"I'm not sure... But I have an idea," she said, raising her hand. She held it there for a few moments before she heard cawing and a crow flew to her, digging it's claws into her fist. She lowered it to eye level and stroking it gently. She brought it closer and began whispering into it's ear.

"Please... Show me where the sword is, the Gurehane."


	19. 19

The crow did nothing, just sitting there and cocking it's head at her. But it suddenly cawed loudly and took off towards the edge of town, just past the training field. Rikou followed it, walking with her hands in the pocket of her trenchcoat and leaving Ken and Kirema behind without a word. But a moment late, Ken fell into step beside her in silence and they moved into the forest, cutting through the village.

The crow perched on top of a tall tree, waiting for them to follow and flicking it's tail. When they reached the tree, the crow folded it's wings and dropped into a clearing, which, Rikou soon found out, looked familiar, It was her father's house.

The windows were boarded up and the door was open, the place looking as if in horrible condition. The crow landed on her shoulder as she stepped inside, followed by Ken. She placed a foot down on the floor and sent up a cloud of dust, sneezing and covering her mouth. What little light that managed to seep through the dirty windows illuminated clouds of floating dust. Rikou could see perfectly fine in the darkness, but she could tell Ken couldn't.

The crow took off into the darkness, flying up the stairwell and landing on the top stair, waiting for her to follow. She pulled Ken through the living room, avoiding looking at the wall with the bloody writing on it, and up the stairs quickly, the stairs crweaking loudly under her feet.

The crow flew to the ceiling, landing on a hole in the wall and somehow scrambing into the attic. Rikou paused, looking around before finding the hatch that led up, but she couldn't reach the handle.

"Here," said Ken, reaching up and standing on his toes, grabbing the handle and pulling hard. A shower of dust fell from the ceiling along wit a rope ladder that Rikou didn't trust. The crow poked it's head over the edge, a few cobwebs tangled in it's feathers and a spider dangling from one. Rikou stopped, eyeing the arachnid.

"...I don't like spiders," she stated simply. Ken looked up, squinting into the darkness.

"And I can't see a thing."

Rikou paused, wondering what to do. She looked back up to the crow. "Can you get it for me?"

The crow let out a low croak, cocking it's head again, and vanisheing. Rikou waited, listening to the silence. There was a loud crash and she jumped back as something fell from the ceiling. Ken reached out and caught it, examining it as Rikou squirmed away, cringing.

"What?" said Ken, turning towards her.

"It's covered in spiders," she whispered, eyeing the small black things crawling over the surface. Ken quickly brushed it off, examining it.

"Well... At least it's a sword, but I can't see in here. Let's head back out."

Rikou led him back down the stairs and into the daylight again. Ken gasped, his eyes lighting up as he broke into a smile.

"This must be it..." He pulled the sword from it's grey case, brushing a few more cobwebs and pulling it out fully. Even Rikou gasped when she saw the actual sword.

It was completely transparent, allowing you to see the hundreds of small tunnels that ran through the inside, chakra tunnels. The handle was plain and grey like the sheath, but the end had a crystal ball, similar to the one on Ken's current sword, attatched to it. The blade sparkled in the sunlight, causing Rikou to squint slightly.

"Woah... I never thought it would be so beautiful," said Ken, holding out the sword and examining it.

"You can keep it," she muttered. Ken sheathed it, looking at her.

"Are you sure? This sword... It's a legend. It's worth alot."

"I can't use it, and I don't want that much money. You know how to use it, right? So you can keep it."

Ken looked at her for a moment, before smiling and lowering the sword. As an afterthought, he drew it again and placed the plain, grey sheath on the ground, holding the sword with both hands. His hands began glowing blue, and the sword suddenly shot blue chakra from the holes in it, crackling like electricity. Each hole made a small thread of chakra, but together, all the threads curling out from it made it look like a feather.

"So that's where it gets it's name. Gurehane- grey feather..."

Ken lifted the sword higher and turned towards a nearby tree, suddenly charging it. Rikou watched in amazement as he brough the sword expertly across the trunk. A moment later, the tree fell, cut perfectly in half and leaving a smooth surface where the sword had cut through. Ken let the blue chakra seep back to him as he came over to Rikou, who was still staring at the halved tree with raised eyebrows.

He picked up the sheath and replaced the sword, dusting off his trenchcoat. "Do you want to go do some training?"

Rikou thought for a moment, before nodding silently. She walked with him back towards the training field, which had been abandoned by Kirema and his gennins. Ken moved to one side of the clearing as Rikou remained in the shadows.

"What do you want to work on?"

"...Ninjutsu. I need to learn how to control this chakra," said Rikou after thinking for a moment. Ken removed his sword from his back and took off his trenchcoat, folding it and hanging over a branch. He moved back over to where she was standing.

"Well... I don't really want to end up at the bottom of a crater, so I'll just give you tips and watch from over here," he said. Rikou nodded, stepping into the sunlight and holding up her hands, but she stopped, looking down at her trenchcoat. She took it off, revealing her bare arms, a curse seal on her right shoulder and an Anbu tatoo on her left.

She moved into the sunlight again and held up her hand, closing her eyes and concentrating, feeling like she was an Acadamy student still trying the grasp the concept of Chakra. She tried to slowly bring chakra to her hands, opening her eyes and watching as the Dark Chakra engulfed them completely. She almost smiled at her control, until the chakra wavered slightly, before exploding out in front of her, blasting through three trees and sending them high into the air along with a few branches.

She cut of the chakra flow and watched helplessly as the trees fell back to earth on their sides, flattening even more trees. She sighed, looking at the destroyed trees before holding up her hands and trying again.

She did this several times, hardly improving, but managing to destroy most of the trees in front of her. Strangely enough, it felt as if she hadn't used any chakra at all, in fact, it was the complete opposite. She felt like she had endless amounts of chakra, and it almost scared her to think of the power she had been granated.

She raised her hands again, but this time, Ken came up behind her, breaking her concentration.

"You need to relax your mind or else you won't get anywhere. And relax your muscles as well, stand like this."

He reached up from behind her and held her arms in his hands, pressing his body into hers from behind. She tensed as he moved her into a different position. _Like this is going to help me relax_, she thought as he shifted her arms slightly.

"And you should release your chakra like this," he said, moving his hands further down and releasing her arms, holding his hands before her and bringing chakra onto them. Rikou watched the flow of the chakra carefully, holding her own arms out. Ken took up her arms again, adjusting the position slightly.

"Now, close your eyes and relax for a moment. Just let your mind go."

Rikou did as she was told, closing her eyes and sighing, letting her mind slip away. Soon all she heard was her and Ken's breathing.

"Okay, now release the chakra slowly," he whispered into her ear. She opened her eyes and slowly let the chakra flow from her arms, managing to hold it for awhile longer before it started to run out of control again. Ken moved his hands further towards her wrists, holding her arms still.

"Uhh... Hey," came Kirema's voice from the tree. Ken pulled away and spun around to face the jounin. Rikou blushed and took a deep breath before facing him as well.

"Umm..." he said, eyeing them before eyeing the trees behind them. He cleared his throat. "The Hokage-sama is calling the Anbu together and sending out the teams. She sent me to get you two and some others, so you should get changed and head to the Hokage-sama for orders."

Kirema disappeared in a puff of smoke, obviously trying to get away from the ackward situation. Rikou turned away and grabbed her coat, slipping it back on and coughing a few times. Without looking back at Ken, she also vanished in a puff of smoke, heading back to her house quickly.

She dressed quickly, grabbing a red and white cat mask and pulling it on quickly. As she left the room, she grabbed a black cloak and slipped it over her uniform, dashing out and running across the rooftops in silence. Although she couldn't see them, she could sense many other Anbu answering the Hokage's call and heading towards the main building.

In Konoha's Anbu, there were only four kunoichis, the rest all being male shinobi. Rikou was the newest kunoichi in the group of assasins, and to her it felt like the Hokage used her for everything, even if it was not something she was good at. She sped into the building, slipping into the meeting room where she found herself suddenly surrounded with tens of other Anbu.

She glanced around, noticing Anbu in white cloaks, black cloaks, brown cloaks, each signifying a different level of Anbu. Brown was the lowest, black was in the middle, and white was the highest, usually being Anbu Captains. Kirema had a white cloak, and Ken also had a white cloak, leaving Rikou behind again. But it was impossible to tell who was who among the Anbu.

Anbu were assasins, meant to gather information and utilize it when in battle, twisting things into their advantage. The masks and cloaks, and for the male shinobi the wigs attatched to the masks, were meant to conceal their identity. This was important in battle so that no emotion will be felt if someone is killed and also to hide your identity from the enemy. The cloaks also served as camouflage, and the uniforms underneath were tight-fitting and easy to move around in, giving them the maximum versitility in war situations or assasinations.

Rikou waited in the strangely silent room patiently, not one shuffle or breath to be heard even as more Anbu filed into the room, taking their position with the lowest ranking at the back, the middle rank in the middle and the Anbu captains at the front. Rikou remained perfectly still as the Hokage herself came through the door, the Anbu parting respectfully and allowing her and her aprentice to pass through their number, to the front of the meeting room. She stood at the front, a serious expression on her face as the Anbu gave her their undivided attention.

"I have called the Anbu together today because of the information gathered on a recent mission. A group of hunter-nin were sent out to find the Akatsuki and destroy them if possible, but that was impossible. They arrived just this morning with new information on the Organization and on Orochimaru," she began, folding her hands as she adressed them. A few hissed at the name of the dark sannin, others shifting uncomfortably.

"Orochimaru has a new body, whom I assume to be Uchiha Sasuke, the boy who ran from Konoha three years ago. He is apperently preparing to strike Konoha again and start another war, trying to overthrow the Leaf."

One of the Anbu shifted. "Why would you call together this many Anbu for only Orochimaru? We are almost at full force right now."

"Orochimaru is not the only thing we have to worry about. It is not that simple. The Akatsuki are also involved. That is, nine of the strongest shinobi, all s-ranked missing-nin from various villages. They will wait until Orochimaru is weakened by the Leaf before striking him as well, but according to the information, if Konoha interferes at all, they will attempt to crush both of us."

"A three-way war?"

The Hokage nodded, sighing. "We have no information regarding Orochimaru's plans, so we do not know when he will strike, but we will be prepared for the worst. I will be sending out squads of Anbu, either four or five man teams, to guard the village, scout around the entire Fire country, or remain inside the village walls and protect the villagers. This is a very serious situation... We have no additional information on either enemies."

There was a scattered whispering as the Hokage let her words sink in for a moment. She raised her hand for silence and began speaking again. "I'm going to assign the teams to their missions now, so listen carefully."

The Anbu shifted to attention, giving their full attention the the Godaime as she began instructing them. "Teams five, six and eight will be patrolling the parimeter as one group of fourteen Anbu and will be the main defense and first alert in case of an attack. They will circle the village borders every day, taking note of anything suspicious."

Team Five was Rikou's team, and it consisted of her, her leader, one black Anbu and two brown Anbu. Team Six had a two white, two black and one brown Anbu, and team Eight had one white, one black and two brown Anbu. Rikou was the only girl in this group.

"Team four and seven will be guarding the village, working together as an eight-man team. You will stay within the village borders unless something goes wrong and you are needed to help another team. You are the last defense.

"Teams one, two and three will be partolling the entire Fire country, as our highest ranking Anbu squads. They will work together as a thirteen-man team and will be the first warning and defense for Konoha."

As the Hokage finished her instructions, the Anbu shifted anxiously, ready to be dismissed. She stared at them seriously for a moment, before her face broke into a smile. "I trust you all. You are Leaf shinobi, the best of the best, and I know you will not fail me now or ever. We will get through this and come out on top."

She folded her arms across her chest as she examined them all, letting her words sink in again.

"Go!"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" said the Anbu, vanishing as one. Rikou followed along with her group at breakneck speed, dashing along the rooftops towards the edge of town where they leapt into the forest, landing cat-like on the forest floor and dashing into the trees where they paused in the shadows.

The three white-cloaked Anbu captains silently came forwards, producing a number of headphones from their cloaks and passing them out to the teams they commanded. Rikou took one and fastened it over her ears, sliding the microphone under her mask. It crackled for a moment before the static disappeared, a voice coming through.

"Split into two teams, team Ni and team Sho. Team Ni will consist of team six and two from team eight. Team Sho will consist of team five and two from team eight including team eight's leader. Team Ni will circle Konoha clockwise and team Sho counterclockwise. We will meet up at the Eastern and Western edges where the enemy is most likely to strike and exchange information. Team Sho will take watch for the first half of the night, patrolling alone, until team Ni takes over, alright?"

The Anbu nodded silently in the shadows, shifting anxiously. Rikou was not as excited as them about running around non-stop for the next God knows how long in a cold forest. She looked up, clouds were rolling in again and they didn't look nice and fluffy, but dark and heavy with rain.

The Anbu who had spoken raised his hand in the shadow for them to see, completely silencing them as they froze. They remained like this, crouching in the shadows, for a few more moments before he turned his hand. and the two groups split apart, one heading North the other South as they began their endless patrol.

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Rikou's muscles were burning, her shoulers and neck aching painfully as she kept watch over a small cluster of trees where her one of the Anbu squads slept. The temperature had been dropping rapidly over the past two weeks, and a few nights ago she had even found icicles hanging from the branches and thin sheets of ice hovering on the surface of the water.

Clouds now hung constantly in the sky, obscuring most light from her, which was a good thing. She could feel a slight warmth in the dead of night that signalled the sun approaching, a new day of patrolling beginning. She had seen how the Anbu had began easing up lately, becoming less alert, and it scared her. If the enemy attacked now and caught them by suprise, it would take precious time to regain their senses.

Her thoughts were broken as a voice came through her headphones. Her ears twitched at the sudden crackling.

"We're ready to set out again. Get your group up and meet us by the.... brown Anbu to come..... here? If the....."

Rikou strained her ears to try to pick out what they were saying, but the static kept breaking through, disrupting the voice. The mike went silent and she leaned back against the tree, relaxing as the noise disappeared.

She jumped as a scream reached her ears through the microphone suddenly, whipping out a kunai and turning towards the direction of where the other group should be waiting for their orders. It died away, turning into heavy breathing and rasping, followed by a series of coughs and silence. She replaced her kunai, instead pulling her ninja-to from within her cloak and dashing towards the other group.

She caught a glimpse of a shadow through the tangle of branches and she paused before turning towards it in silence, hiding in a tree and poised, ready to strike. What she saw before her froze her to the bone.

Three Anbu remained, each injured and bleeding as they faced a single figure wearing an Akatsuki robe. Around them lay the other four Anbu in their squad, dead. Not just dead, shredded. Body parts lay strewn across the clearing, blood spattering the trees and the icy ground.

The silence was suffocating as Rikou watched the Akatsuki shift slightly, raising a long chain with a knife attatched to either end, blood running off of them. Looking closer, she noticed hundreds of tiny teeth lining the chain, making it a very lethal weapon.

As he lifted it and spun it towards them, Rikou dashed in, slashing her ninja-to upwards and throwing off her cloak as the chain wrapped aroung her blade. She had engaged in a very dangerous battle without thinking. The Akatsuki in front of her had no expression on his face as he pulled th weapon back suddenly. She turned the blade and let the chain slide from it as she jumped back along with her opponent, facing him. He was not one of the Akatsuki she knew.

The Anbu behind her suddenly cried out and fell to the ground, writhing in pain. She turned her head slightly, viewing them from the corner of her eye. What's wrong with them? It's just a few cuts...

She raised her hand in a seal and glared at her opponent from behind her mask. "Gesshoku no Mai!"

Reaching out in two arms beside her appeared over fifty shadow clones, each holding a katana and wearing a black cloak. They completely surrounded the Akatsuki, their swords poised as she held the seal in concentration. She felt the dark Chakra trying to force it's way out of her, her arms throbbing as she swallowed, making more seals.

"Guregenshi no Jutsu!" she choked out. But this time, she could not hold the chakra in and it poured from her arms, reaching out to the clones and taking it's own shape, curling around the trees. The Akatsuki made no move as he watched this happen, insted dropping his weapon slightly. The fifty clones began sinking into the shadows as the Jutsu took affect, turning the world grey.

Each clone appeared red as it slipped into the shadows, sinking for a moment before dashing at the Akatsuki at high speed, katana's being the only part of them above ground. There was a sudden crackling, sounding like electricity, and the first row of clones vanished in a flash of light. When the light faded, she found herself looking into the bloodthirty eyes of a giant thunder lizard, trapped in some kind of genjutsu.

Here guregenshi genjutsu remained in effect, except for the fact that her, the lizard and the Akatsuki standing on it's head. She looked behind her, the three Anbu were grey, seemingly frozen and unmoving. There was no breeze, no sign of life. Has time stopped...?

The lizard roared, opening it's maw wide, electricity crackling from it as it ran at her head-on. She held her hands in front of her, dropping her sword and letting the Dark Chakra seep from her hands, wrapping around her body. It took the shape of wings behind her back for a moment before she sent it forwards, right into the lizards mouth. The lizard sent a bolt of electricity towards her, the two forces connecting and exploding.

The following shockwave sent Rikou skidding backwards as she struggled to hold her force strong, leaving a deep trench where she slid backwards, finally slowing to a stop. The Dark chakra seemed to crackle angrily, as if it had a mind of it's own, shooting out in spikes from her as she stood and face the Akatsuki, hearing his voice for the first time.

"You! That Chakra! That's the Dark Chakra!" Electricity crackled suddenly from everywhere, the trees, his body, the lizard, the air itself, portraying his strength as he readied for another attack, this time not holding back.

His body began changing into that of another giant lizard, a forked tongue snaking from between his lips before whipping back in. Long black claws curved elegantly from his hands and feet and a long, pointed tail stretched behind him as he joined the original lizard at it's side, facing her squarely.

Another force suddenly took hold of her body, burning across her skin and crackling out in the form of chakra. She dropped into a crouch as the wings of chakra, this time more solid, reached out behind her, stretching wide and passing through the surrounding trees easily. It felt as if they were a part of her body, she could control them as if they were controlled by normal muscles. Her chakra felt more controlled, coming out in smaller amounts and evenly covering her skin, stretching past her fingers like claws as she dropped into a crouch, glaring out at him from eyes that were not her own.

The lizards seemed to hesitate, before opening their mouths and charging, electricity crackling before them as she dashed to the left, feeling as if she weighed nothing. She spun in mid-air, catching a lizard in the side of it's scaled head and suprisingly sending it flying back into a tree, although she had barely used any power at all.

She crouched on a branch for a moment before springing at the other one, claws of chakra raised to meet his. His head plunged towards her, but she raised her leg in a kick, snapping it back shut. But a bolt of electricity touched on her ankle, numbing her leg and causing her to fall to the side, unable to move it. The lizards regrouped, facing her and charging again, one of their tails whipping out and striking the three immobile Anbu to the ground, most likely killing them instantly.

She looked into their eyes, thinking quickly and choosing the one with yellow eyes, the one who was actually the Akatsuki. He was leading the other one towards her, and as she raised her hand to slash him down, another bolt of electricity licked out, slashing her across the chest and sending her a few feet back where she lay still.

The yellow-eyed lizard wasted no time approaching her,siking his teeth around her lower body, peircing the skin slightly, but not seriously. He turned and began carrying her off, but she twitched her arms slightly; she wasn't going to go quietly.

Calling up a great amount of the Dark Chakra, she released it all at one, letting it tear through her body, ripping apart her Anbu gloves as it tore at the lizard, sending grey blood flying everywhere. It dropped her instantly, roaring as it fell to the ground, turning back into the Akatsuki. He writhed on the ground, grey blood spilling from his mouth as the real lizard stood in front of him protectively.

The grey haze around her faded as she stumbled back, her limbs numb. The lizrd lifted the Akatsuki, glancing at her before dashing off into the forest, vanishing completely. Rikou fell back onto the cold, hard forest floor, the grey haze slowly fading away.

The world seemed to slowly fall back into normal time, a small breeze picking up and the Anbu behind her falling to the ground fully. The breeze turned into a wind that blew the haze away completely. As soon as the last drop of grey vanished, every wound inflicted during battle suddenly flared up in pain, the red blood leaking from various tooth holes in her chest. But she could do nothing about it, her limbs buzzed from the electric shocks she had recieved, her muscles simply not responding.

She let out a hiss of agony and frustration of not being able to help herself. Her sword lay a few feet away, spattered with her own blood. Am I losing that much blood?

This was answered as her body convulsed, blood spewing from her mouth and running dow her cheeks, dripping into her ears and onto the ground. She looked up at the slowly lightening sky through her mask, feeling the cold seep into her bones. Her pulse began to slow along with her breathing until she could not even feel it anymore.

She tried several times to move, but her muscles simply did not respond, and she soon gave up from exaughstion and pain, letting out a shallow sigh and staring blankly up at the sky, more blood leaking down from the corners of her mouth, pooling under her along with the blood from the bite.

A voice came through her microphone, asking her position just as the sky brightened further, the light grey clouds growing even lighter. She tried to answer, but had no breath left to do so, not even enough to make any noise at all. He must have hit my internal organs, she thought, her lungs failing further.

Her eyes slowly began to close, but snapped wide open again as she heard the remaining Anbu approaching, pausing at the edge of the small clearing before dashing forwards, examining the battlefield. They began checking the bodies to see if any survuved, and Rikou's spirits were raised as one of the Anbu apprached her, placing two fingers on her throat and feeling for a pulse. He got none and moved on.

Ugh... I'm still alive... Come back! The four Anbu gathered in the middle of the clearing and the two white-cloaked leaders arrived as well. She heard their conversation through her headphones.

"Eight dead, they've all fallen. No sign of the enemy, but there was a large battle. This crater is quite large, and the trench over there is over three feet deep. We should immediately report to the Hokage-sama."

"Did you check all of the bodies?"

"Yes, there are no survivors..."

No survivors? Rikou squeezed her eyes shut in pain, forcing her lungs to work harder, the sudden intake of air causing her body to cunvulse as she coughed up another lage amount of blood before falling silent again.

"...Still twitching..."

Still twitching!? She felt her mind beginning to slip away, the pain receding to a dull throb as her vision darkened.

"That wasn't a twitch. Let the medical-nin check her out."

Rikou sighed inwardly as she was finally acknowledged, the Anbu crowding around her. Her team leader, and the medical-nin for the group, kneeled beside her, pulling off the mask. Before he could do anything, however, Rikou convuled again, her stomach muscles pulling her into a sitting position of a moment as she coughed up more blood, feeling her lungs completely give out. Her heart beat irregulary a few times before she fell back to the ground.

"Just a kid... Keep her alive, we need more information!"

Rikou's lungs had stopped completely, and her heart seemed about to follow suit, but the medical-nin brought green chakra to his hand and placed it over her chest, nulling the pain for a few moment before her removed his own mask, bending forwards as she slipped away further and further.

He pulled out a knife and cut away the outer layer of her uniform, leaving her in her black undershirt as he leaned forwards, tilting her head back. Rikou caught a glimpse of his face, a name registering vaguely in the back of her mind. ...Ken?

He plugged her nose and sealed her mouth with his, breathing air into her empty lungs quickly and folding his chakra-laden hands over her chest, pressing down hard a few times before repeating. He breathed more air into her lungs, pounding hard on her chest. She felt one of her ribs pop and sat up, her nerves burning with the new pain as she gasped, the cold air filling her lungs.

But sitting up caused more pain, and her hand flew to one of the larger holes in her shoulder, her fingers digging into it as blood seeped down her elbow, being absorbed by her torn up gloves. Ken forced her back more, but propped up her head gently, using his chakra to try and heal some of the more serious wounds. The Anbu around her shifted impatiently.

"We need information, get her to talk before she's gone."

"She's not going to die... Rikou, listen. Can you talk?"

Rikou supressed more coughing, looking up into Ken's face. "Yeah..."

Her voice was cracked and raspy, fading into a whisper, but she could still talk. Ken shifted his hold on her. "Tell us what happened."

Rikou squeezed her eyes shut in pain, managing to force out one word. "Akatsuki..."

"You two, go now and report to the Hokage-sama. Run!"

Two of the six Anbu departed instantly, vanishing in silence and dashing back to Konoha. "We need more information, make her talk," ordered the other leader. Anger flashed across Ken's face for a second, before he leaned closer to Rikou.

"She is in no condition to speak or move right now, she needs more medical attention. You may question her after," he said, his voice slightly raised.

"We need it now! If she dies passing information to us, then it would be her honour to die for her village. Let her speak!"

"No!' hissed Ken. Rikou felt his hand tighten around her as he turned to face the other leader. "We have enough information alredy and do not need one of Konoha's most talented kunoichi dying at the time of war."

Ken ran his hand over her wounds again before lifting her in his arms, motioning for the others to go back to the village. He followed behind them at a fast pace, considering he was carrying Rikou. Rikou looked into the forest, her limbs still not responding, as she thought of the next few days in front of her. The war was starting soon.


	20. 20

"What… What did you say…?"

Rikou stood facing slightly to the side, her head turned towards the Hokage. Her green eyes were narrowed in confusion, her raven black hair hanging in front of them messily.

"You won't be alone… There is another with the Kyubi sealed within him, and he has learned to harness its Chakra. Although you cannot control the Raicho's Chakra yet, it seems to be more powerful than even that of the Nine-Tails Demon Fox."

"What exactly is the Raicho?"

"The Raicho is a very powerful demon, the demon who rules over the underworld. It apparently managed to break into our world a few hundred years ago, but was somehow sealed with the Gekkou clan. It was a really terrifying demon, although it didn't have as bad a temper as the Kyubi, and was actually a giant Thunder Bird that took the form of a raven."

"But…" Rikou glanced at the Jounin standing behind her, looking up at her, and swallowed hard. "But…"

"At least do it for your village," said the Hokage, almost pleading with her. The war had not raged as they had expected it to, it came in waves, slowly hacking away at the Leaf's ranks.

Rikou lowered her head, looking at her feet. "But… I don't want to…"

"Then you are forsaking your village!" snapped one of the Jounin behind her angrily.

"It's not like that… I just don't want to."

"The Leaf cannot hold out for much longer… If we don't send out the strongest now, we will be crushed!"

Rikou felt the anger rising inside of her. She lifted her head and turned towards the Hokage, who was simply looking at her silently. She clenched her hands into tight fists and dropped her head again.

"You just don't get it… The surge of power that comes with the Chakra is terrifying… My mind is overwhelmed and my body is taken over by it, and it hurts…"

"You should be willing to take a bit of pain for your country, if you don't fight now, there will be no other time."

Something inside of Rikou snapped and she spun around, glaring at the last one to speak. He seemed to falter at the anger that flashed through her eyes.

"Don't lecture me about pain; I've endured more than anyone in this village, both physical and psychological. A year of torture, watching my team mates die before me, my family and friends as well…Do you know what it's like to hang from a cold stone wall and refuse to answer a question, only to have an eleven-year-old kid's stomach cut open so he can watch himself bleed to death slowly in a dark stone prison?"

The room was completely silent as the Jounin's face softened slightly and he dropped his eyes. Rikou glared at him for a moment longer, taking a step forwards and watching as the room full of Jounin edged back. They're afraid of me, she thought. No, afraid of what's inside of me…

She lowered her eyes, turning back to the Hokage but keeping her head down, her hair completely covering her eyes again.

"With the possibility of death and the escape from this life, I suppose I could fight for you like this… like a tool… But only for you, Hokage-sama, not for these people behind me, not for the village, only for you."

The Hokage eyed her for a moment, before sighing and standing, placing her hands on the counter before her and leaning forwards. "Thank you Rikou. You will find Naruto on the East wall holding off a few of the remaining Sound-nin. Go to him and he will instruct you from there."

Rikou turned in silence, her black trench coat flowing behind her as she stepped forwards towards the exit. The Jounin parted, leaving a clear path as she walked through their ranks. She passed Ken without looking up, and then Kirema and finally her former sensei, Kanzu. She slid the door open in silence, slipping out of the room and slamming it behind her as she felt every Jounin's eyes on her back.

Rikou made her way down the hall, leaving through the front door and looking out at a frozen Konoha. It had snowed slightly, and about two inches covered the town, icicles hanging from rooftops and tree branches.

She sighed, her breath hanging in the cold air, before dashing east, towards a thin column of smoke that rose from one of the crumbled walls. When she arrived, she found that the small battle was over, several bodies scattering the ground and staining the snow red. A group of Leaf-nin stood on the remaining wall, looking down upon the enemy as she landed beside them, trying to remember their names.

She immediately noticed Naruto; he wore a white trench coat with red flames licking up from the bottom and the word 'Hokage' printed in large red letters on his back. There was also a pink-haired girl, Sakura, standing next to him in a medical-nin uniform. She picked out two others which she knew, Inuzuka Kiba and Hyuga Neji.

Looking around at the other three, something clicked in her mind. _These are all shinobi who are around the same age as me, all of them were gennins when I was a gennin… That's strange…_

"Rikou, you came," said Neji, being the first to notice her, turning slightly to see her better. She said nothing, but stood and joined the others, looking down. Neji's head suddenly snapped back and he pulled out a kunai, throwing it into the trees. The trees beside the point he had aimed for suddenly lurched forwards, forming a solid wall in which the kunai embedded itself harmlessly.

"Who's there?"

When there was no answer, one of the Jounin which Rikou didn't know jumped forwards, bringing a seal to his lips and blowing a large whirlwind of flame into the forest below. To Rikou's surprise, the surrounding snow shot up in icy spikes, nullifying the flames easily.

"What is that?" she whispered, leaning forwards. The spikes of ice melted back into the ground as they looked on in horror.

"Come out."

There was still no answer. The wind picked up slightly and Rikou could have sworn she heard voices whispering along with it. She strained her eyes to try to see through the shadows. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Naruto.

"That Chakra… These are not normal shinobi… Rikou, let's go look closer," he whispered. She paused for a moment, before nodding and pulling out two kunai.

She dropped from the crumbling wall, landing in a crouch beside a body and gazing into the trees. The branches slowly parted, but the shadows remained hiding the enemies. She and Naruto crouched in silence, straining their eyes and squinting into the shadows to no avail.

Two shadows suddenly burst from the trees at an amazing speed, leaving them no time to react before they were slammed backwards. Rikou found herself staring into the dripping jaws of a giant black wolf, its bright yellow eyes on the same level as hers. She jerked her head back, pressing against the wall as the long dripping fangs stopped an inch from her throat, the rancid breath of the animal curling up into her nostrils.

"Oi, watchit brother… It's not the enemy," growled the large wolf who was pinning Naruto to the wall a few feet off. The black wolf's teeth touched on the skin of her neck longingly before it pulled back and forced its jaws shut, dropping away from her.

The black wolf paced away, joining up with the white one and facing them. There was a puff of smoke and Rikou found herself looking at two Cloud-nin. They were exact replicas of each other, down to the last strip of clothing. They had black hair with a streak of blonde running down the middle and the same, wild yellow eyes of the wolves. Naruto was the first to recover, jumping up and pointing at them.

"Who the hell are you!? What are Cloud-nin doing in the Leaf!?"

The two Cloud-nin grinned identical toothy smiles, shifting slightly before speaking again. "The Cloud, Stone and Grass have come to fight alongside Konoha. Don't you want more allies?"

Naruto said nothing as the two Cloud-nin continued grinning. They were quite young, probably only a year older than Rikou at most. She finally regained her senses and stood as well, the rest of their team dropping from the wall and facing the Cloud-nin as they turned to face the trees.

"Oi, you two, get out here… and bring the others!"

There was a moment of silence before two more shapes appeared from the shadows. The first was another boy with black hair and bright red eyes. He wore a Stone forehead protector. The one that followed behind him was a girl, with flaming red hair and deep brown eyes; she wore a Grass forehead protector.

The two shinobi stepped forwards, pausing beside the two wolf boys. A moment later, as Rikou looked past them, she saw many full squads of ninja emerging from the shadows, from the Cloud, Grass and Stone. Rikou's eyes widened at the sight of so many shinobi, all battle clad and ready to fight. One of the identical boys stepped forwards and held out a scroll to Naruto, who was about to take it until a gigantic explosion came from the north, shaking the snow from the trees and almost causing Rikou to lose her balance.

"Neji, take them to the Hokage-sama. Rikou, let's go!"

Rikou glanced at the assembled shinobi before dashing after Naruto, following him up onto the wall and dashing towards a large column of black smoke. There were there quickly, skidding to a halt and staring open-mouthed at the total destruction before them.

The wall had been completely destroyed, rubble still falling away into a small crater. The surrounding trees were leveled, thrown aside and toppled on top of each other. But that was not the worst part. In the middle of the crater stood nine figures, each wearing a black trench coat with a design of red clouds painted across it. The nine faces looked up at her and Naruto as they were joined by other shinobi, Jounin and Chuunin from the Leaf.

"The Akatsuki," hissed Rikou in contempt and fear, eyeing the Missing-nin uneasily. Even Naruto shifted uncomfortably at the sight of the powerful enemy. The world was silent as they eyed each other for a few moments.

"Is that her?" asked Kagi, elbowing Tatsu in the ribs. This earned him a whack over the head. Rikou took a step back as the Akatsuki turned towards her. Her eyes fixed on the middle one, the leader who had always been referred to as 'Him.'

He was medium sized with blue eyes and silver hair that hung down over his shoulders. Instead of an Akatsuki robe, he wore a black cape with red clouds on it, a white outfit visible underneath. He was staring up at her fixedly, as if she were the only one who was there.

"She's more beautiful than I thought… Kagi, Tatsu, go get her."

Kagi and Tatsu suddenly lunged at her, heading straight at her as they jumped the wall. Seven shapes suddenly skidded to a halt around her, two of them giant wolves, as a solid wall of ice shot up in front of her, completely blocking the head-on attack. She looked around her in amazement at the new arrivals.

Right at her side stood Ken, the Gurehane drawn and raised. On the other side stood Kirema in his battle stance, nekotes raised. In front of her stood Naruto, hands held out protectively as his trench coat billowed out behind him.

But it was the other four that surprised her. The two wolves she recognized to be the two brothers from the Cloud, and they stood side by side, growling dangerously, their hackles raised. In front of them stood the girl with the flaming red hair, the girl from the Grass. And foremost, at the front of the group with his arms held out, apparently the one controlling the ice wall, was the black-haired boy from the Stone. His hands twitched slightly as the wall slipped back into the ground, allowing full sight of the nine Akatsuki, Kagi and Tatsu slightly in front and panting as they glared up in confusion.

"Naruto," growled Kisame, lifting his sword.

"Tenshi," hissed another. The wolf on the left twitched.

"And Gyou," said the one next to him, causing the other wolf to shift slightly.

"Kamikaze-_chan_," said another sarcastically, eyeing the red-haired girl.

"Kijo…" said the only female Akatsuki to the black-haired boy in front.

Kagi looked around in confusion, rubbing the back of his head. "Uhhh…. Rikou?"

"Shut up, Kagi," hissed the leader, stepping forwards. Kagi and Tatsu fell back into line as they faced the new arrivals.

"Naruto, Tenshi, Gyou, Kamikaze, Kijo and even Rikou… All in the same place at the same time. How convenient. Or is it…" he lifted his head to view the ones around Rikou. "Or is it that you're finally trying to stop me?"

Rikou watched at the reaction this got from the other shinobi. The hissed in contempt for the Akatsuki, glaring needles at him as he grinned back.

"In order to do that… You either need to kill me or her. If you try to kill me, you'll end up dead. And if you lay a finger on her I'll rip you apart." From behind him, he whipped out a giant battle axe, four feet long with an oversized blade on the end. He slammed the axe into a thick log, and it embedded itself almost completely through, splintering it hopelessly. Rikou cringed, taking another few steps back.

"Don't run, Rikou. It's useless. The rest of you… Capture the rest of them, but if they fight back to strongly kill them. Do not kill Rikou, and try not to hurt her too much. If anyone gets between me and her, kill them immediately. Go!"

The nine shinobi flew forwards, the leader heading straight for her along with Kagi and Tatsu. Ken grabbed her arm and threw her to the side, bringing up his sword and blocking the giant axe as it headed straight for him. He shouted something to another of the Jounin and they attacked from the side, but were immediately blown away.

Rikou dashed to Kirema's side, facing the approaching Kagi and Tatsu. Chains suddenly shot from the ground, wrapping up Kirema and attempting to suffocate him. But Rikou was in front of him instantly, whipping out her ninja-to and charging Kagi in the same motion.

"Mikazuki no Mai!" Two clones appeared beside her as she vanished, reappearing behind him and jumping into the air as he was distracted by the other two clones. She brought the sword down in a wide arch, ending as it connected with his left shoulder. But it hit something metal, and did not penetrate.

Kagi spun around, the chains releasing Kirema, and faced her, raising a hand and twitching a finger. A key flew from nowhere, into one of the locks on his body and releasing one of the many chains. He charged.

But Rikou was fast; she flipped backwards and jumped into the air, throwing two kunai at him as she retreated slightly. Kirema and Tatsu were fighting with each other, blue flames bursting to life every few seconds as they clashed, Tatsu's claws scraping up against Kirema's nekotes. Rikou turned back to her own fight, thinking quickly. She landed a few feet away and slammed the tip of her sword into the ground a few inches, bringing up her hands.

_Ox, dragon, snake, rabbit, dragon, pig, pig, horse, snake, rabbit, dog, rat, monkey, rat, tiger, dragon, bird, ram, tiger, dragon, serpent, serpent, serpent, bird, dragon, serpent, bird, bird, bird…_

Her hands flew into a long string of seals as her eyes narrowed in concentration, Kagi watching in interest. Her eyes darted to the side where Ken was somehow managing to hold off their leader with some other Jounin, and she saw the leader also watching her in interest.

As she neared the end of her chain of seals, she needed to say them aloud in order to remember them. "Inu, Ryuu, Tori, Tori, Hebi, Saru, Ino, Tori, Tora, Nezu, Usagi, Uma, Inu, Oushi, Tora, Tori, Tori, Tori!"

She held the last seal, Tori, or the bird, for a few moments, concentrating before raising her head. "Gekkou Hijutsu Ninpou: Kaihou Ankokugai Anoyo Youkai - Kuchi-yose no Jutsu!"

The sky suddenly went black as millions of black feathered wings spread, covering it completely, accompanied by a chorus of croaks and cawing. Rikou smiled as thousands of crow demons rose from the ground, swarming together above her as they began attacking the enemy.

The leader looked at her in amazement and Kagi was looking around curiously, swatting at the occasional demon that dove at his head. The other Akatsuki momentarily disengaged with their opponents, looking up at the dark demons. They then turned to their leader, who nodded, blocking a blow from Ken.

Rikou watched helplessly as every Akatsuki, including the leader, suddenly jumped back, either wiping blood from themselves or biting a finger and plunging it towards the ground. There was a loud cry of "Kuchi-yose no Jutsu!"

Rikou stumbled back as nine demons appeared before her, an Akatsuki on each head as they faced the crow demons. Kagi rode upon the back of some sort of demon, its leathery wings folded over its emaciated back. It looked almost like a lizard or dragon, and had one eye and a long, whip-like tail.

She saw the thunder lizard she had encountered before, a giant dragon that belonged to Tatsu, Itachi riding the back of a weasel, Kisame on some sort of leviathan sitting in a pool of its own creation, and the leader nestled between the ears of a giant red tiger. The other summons she saw were a giant spider, a griffin, a demon wolf and a large red dragonfly that belonged to the female Akatsuki.

It was an incredible sight to see the enemy's summons lined up and easily snapping away the crow demons, but they were ready as well. They began forming their own seals, Rikou catching on and making a few quick seals, biting her thumb and yelling "Kuchi-yose no Jutsu!"

She felt the Dark Chakra pour from her hand as the symbols formed a circle of light around her. A moment later, she found herself on the soft, feathered head of the giant crow demon. Looking around, she noticed others like hers.

Naruto was riding the back of a giant toad, Tenshi and Gyou were each riding on a giant demon wolf of their own, Kamikaze was riding between the shoulder blades of a medium-sized four-headed dragon, Kijo was on the back of a Chimera, and Kirema had his giant blue salamander summon. There were others as well, Sakura on Katsuya and Ken on the back of a phoenix summon.

I _never knew Ken had a summon_, she thought, looking at the beautiful fiery bird. The flames didn't seem to affect him. She looked around, the demons facing each other, some glaring at others or growling. It was a sight to remember.

Eighteen different demons about to fight on the outskirts of Konoha, dragons, horribly twisted creatures, a tiger, a crow, a fiery bird… This war would become a large part of history.

The demons began to advance on each other. Kisame's leviathan shot towards Kijo's chimera. Itachi's weasel darted towards Naruto and his giant toad summon and a few yards from them, the Akatsuki on the griffin took to the air along with Kamikaze on her four-headed dragon. Tenshi and Gyou on their wolves were clashing with another wolf demon and a giant spider as Sakura and Katsuyu fought with the female Akatsuki and her red dragonfly.

There was an explosion on flame nearby and Rikou spun around to see Ken and his phoenix clawing at the Akatsuki's leader and his tiger summon. He seemed to be able to handle him for the moment. Rikou turned towards Kagi, the only other person not fighting, and began her own battle with him and his twisted dragon-like demon.


	21. 21

The two demons clashed recklessly, biting, clawing, smashing… anything to use against the other was put into use here. The dragon would lunge at Akurei, its teeth dripping with saliva as it closed down on thin air. The large crow would then flap hard, sending waves of air reinforced with chakra towards it, blowing it back and slashing it open.

This happened several times, until they began to slow. Akurei managed to plunge his beak deep into the side of the dragon, but he also received a bite on his leg, the long teeth going clean through. He clamped his beak together tightly, as did the other demon, and they remained locked together.

Rikou was about to attack Kagi, but she suddenly heard Ken cry out from his battle and spun around. He was pinned under the paw of the leader's tiger summon, one of the claws pressing through his arm and into the ground. The Gurehane lay far off, out of reach, and the tiger reared back to kill him.

Rikou was there instantly, holding her hands out and releasing the Dark Chakra in a large amount. It swirled around her as the tiger's head slowed upon seeing her, before shooting upwards, darting in the shape of a raven's head and blasting the tiger in the face, before passing completely through its head. Blood showered down on her as the summon disappeared in a puff of grey smoke and the Akatsuki's leader landed in a crouch before her, battle axe resting on the ground.

She glanced at Ken who was unconscious on the ground behind her, his blood spilling over the rocks and pooling around him at a frightening pace. Her heart froze at the sight of her friend's condition and, forgetting Kagi and his leader, she dashed to his side.

"Ken!' She propped up his head and wiped the blood from his mouth, unsure of what to do. She knew hardly any medical techniques, and she couldn't even harness the proper chakra for the use of healing. Ken's eyes flicked open for a moment before slipping closed again.

"I like your power," stated the Akatsuki's leader casually. "Give it to me."

Rikou's eyes narrowed, and she felt an anger she had never felt before building up inside of her. Her memories came back to her, her father dying at the hands of the Akatsuki, her team mates, her former sensei… She looked down at the unnaturally still Ken and her hands began shaking. They were covered in his blood. In their blood.

No, she thought. It's not my fault. It's him. It's the Akatsuki's fault that I've suffered so much, that the people around me have suffered so much…

"We'll leave this village alone once you come with us," he said. Rikou lowered her head, knowing she was going to regret what she was about to do. She placed Ken back on the cold ground, standing and turning to face the two Akatsuki. She lifted her head, the Dark Chakra swirling around her, filling the air with its crushing power.

"You said… This chakra is the most powerful thing on this earth. That if I ever managed to harness it, I would probably be the strongest shinobi ever. Well, guess what," she hissed, raising a hand. Wings of chakra spread from between her shoulders as she felt her body being taken over by the Crow's spirit. She felt her vision sharpen along with her other senses and long talons of chakra extend past her fingers, forming sharp blades.

**"I harnessed it."**

_**Yes, let me feel it… Let me take over completely… So long. It's been so long…**_

_Take over completely?_

_**Yes… I'll rip them apart.**_

_What will happen to me?_

_**I don't know… But I promise I will not stop until I kill him. You might be lost forever. You might die from the overwhelming power. You might lose your mind or your memory. I don't know. But I want to taste his flesh right now.**_

_… Me too…_

Rikou let her mind slip away completely, retreating to the back of it as she looked through eyes that were not her own. She felt incredible power emanating from her body, swirling around her and suffocating her, intoxicating her. It felt so good to let go.

**"I'll kill you. I'll rip you apart. Let me feel it again, its been so many years since I was last in control of my vessel's body… This body is small, but it is fast and young…"**

The voice rumbled out from within her, not from her throat, from somewhere else. She vaguely noted the look of excitement on the leader's face as she tensed. She charged at the leader and Kagi, chakra practically dripping off of her. It happened so quickly, she didn't even have time to enjoy it.

Her vision was splattered with red as she plunged her chakra-laden hand directly through his chest, followed by her other hand. The blood trickled down her arms, dripping off of her elbows and staining the snow red. Against her own will, she leaned towards the Akatsuki leader who still wore an expression of shock on his pale face.

Her tongue snaked out and licked a small amount of his blood from his cheek as his eyes began to close. The taste of blood became everything as she let his body slip to the ground, dead. Her mind seemed to explode, the blood running down her throat. She sighed in satisfaction. Kagi looked at how easily she had defeated his leader, and turned away, vanishing. But instead of following him like she wanted to, he body forced itself away, turning to the other Akatsuki.

One of them had already been killed, but the others seemed to be pushing them and their allies back into the village. Some of the Akatsuki had disengaged in their battles to see their leader fall, some of them looking almost as frightened as Kagi had.

Chakra crackled out in a large circle around her, small rocks or bits of twigs rising into the air as she prepared to fight the others.

_Don't! I thought you said only the leader! Go after Kagi, not them!!!_

_**I said nothing of the sort. I said I'd rip them apart, and them encompasses everyone.**_

Two of the Akatsuki charged her, still riding on their summons, and she met them with equal speed. It was the girl on the dragonfly and the Akatsuki on the giant griffin. She brought a hand towards the griffin's leg, a whip of chakra lashing out at it and snapping it, causing the griffin to fal and cry out before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Chakra crackled along the surface of the dragonfly's wings, causing it to fall from the sky as well, its master landing in a crouch and facing her as it disappeared. The rest of the Akatsuki each used a powerful attack, either trapping or immobilizing their opponents. The then turned toward her, letting their summons disappear and lining up in their original position, a gap where Kisame, Kagi and their leader should have been.

"The brat managed to kill him!" One of the Akatsuki pointed to where the leader lay in a puddle of blood. Another laughed softly.

"Good riddance," he said, stepping forwards. "Now we can kill her."

"But, He said to capture-"

"Well, he's dead now. I don't think he has much to say on the matter. So let's get rid of her."

The Akatsuki smiled, and one of them pushed another forwards. It was the one she had fought previously, the one who controlled the thunder lizard. The one who had pushed him forwards whispered something in his ear and he smiled, bringing his hands into a seal.

"Raiden no Jutsu!"

The sky suddenly rumbled with thunder, the air crackling again with electricity. But Rikou was ready this time, she forced a wall of chakra out around her, pushing away the electricity and charging the Akatsuki at the same time. She pulled out a kunai and grabbed his neck roughly, immobilizing him.

Rikou slipped the sharp knife easily into his throat, sliding it behind his windpipe, causing him to cry out in pain. Blood dripped down his neck, melting into his robes as she slipped the kunai through completely, pushing the tip out the other side.

"Please…!"

Rikou began laughing insanely, against her will again. This was getting out of hand. **"Hahahaha! Die bitch!"**

She pulled the knife forwards, cutting off his air supply. He slumped to the ground and Rikou lifted her hand, bringing back the kunai. She brought it forwards, into the palm of her left hand, digging it in painfully and letting her own blood mix with the thunder controlling Akatsuki.

They shifted uncomfortably, staring at her in astonishment. She grinned insanely at them, pulling out the kunai and throwing it aside. She brought up her hands and made another long string of seals.

"Tori, Ino, Inu, Ryuu, Saru, Hitsuji, Uma, Hebi, Tora, Nezu, Saru, Usagi, Tori, Ino, Inu, Inu, Uma, Oushi…"

"Kaihou Anoyo!"

The world was suddenly plunged into darkness, trapping her, her enemies and her allies in the world of the dead. Twisted creatures snarled at them from the edges, spitting and hissing. This was a combination of ninjutsu and genjutsu; it was inescapable.

_This is not one of my Jutsu._

_**I know, isn't it great? It's one of my own creation; it reminded me of my former kingdom when I was pulled into this world. Watch me kill them.**_

Rikou's vision suddenly blacked out, and she found herself floating in darkness as she so often did. A vision broke into the darkness, a shape blacker than black forming in the shadow. She squinted and picked out the form of the Raicho glaring back at her with its unnerving eyes.

_'Where is this?'_

_**'You're basically in my place. This is my mind.'**_

_'What? But wouldn't that mean-'_

**_'Yes,'_** the crow laughed, its putrid breath licking up into her nostrils. She moved back slightly as her hands touched on cold metal bars.

_**'Yes… The seal has finally broken. I'm finally free.'**_

_'What are you doing to them? I can't see anything.'_

_**'I'm slaughtering them one by one.'**_

_'What about our allies?'_

_**'They haven't gotten in the way yet, so I haven't killed any.'**_

_'Yet?'_

_**'If they get in my way I'll rip them apart.'**_

Rikou placed her hands on the bars of her prison, looking out at the crow demon. _'Let me out.'_

_**'Hahaha… Yeah right. You never let me out, and I'm not going to forsake this chance to kill.'**_

_'Let me out now!'_

_**'Why don't you get yourself out?'**_

Rikou looked out at the bird in frustration. Time was running out. _'At least let me see what is happening out there.'_

_**'No. I'll tell you what's happening though. I just killed Kagi, he got in the way… or not. He deflected it somehow. The other Akatsuki are dead along with some of the other Jounin and chuunin that got in the way.'**_

_'Let me see.'_

_**'Your boyfriend's trying to get up and stop me, but I want to kill Kagi right now.'**_

_'My boyfriend? I don't have one.'_

_**'Well… That guy you like, Ken.'**_

Rikou squinted at the crow. _'I never said I liked him.'_

_**'So I can kill him then?'**_

_'No!'_

_**'You can't hide feelings from me; I'm part of your mind. I know everything you think, every feeling that runs through your mind.'**_

Rikou fell silent, sitting on the floor and dropping her head. The crow cocked its head. **_'It's not like I don't want you to see what's going on, I can't. You have to do that yourself.'_**

'Myself…' she closed her eyes, but something odd happened. Since she was already inside of her own mind, when she closed them it only brought up a picture of where she was sitting already, the crow in front of her. When she tried to open them, she found they were already open, and when she closed them again, the same thing happened. It was frustrating.

She stood, grabbing the bars of her confinement and squeezing har, concentrating on her hands. Her vision shifted between her hands, between the bars and into the darkness. She stared for a long time until the darkness began to give way again and a picture of a dark world came into view.

The sudden shock of being able to see caused her to shift slightly, which broke whatever weak connection she had. She grabbed the bars again and concentrated hard, causing the world to flow back into view.

She couldn't hear, smell, feel or taste anything, but at least her sight was working. She was gliding on a breeze, two giant black wings stretched out beside her as she circled Kagi. There were a number of Jounin and Chuunin, Medical-nin, the shinobi from the other countries, dead Missing-nin, a few remaining summons and many large craters below.

A screech erupted from within her, something that broke the silence in her mind, but she kept up her concentration, focusing on Kagi, the last remaining Akatsuki. Only a few locked chains remained wrapped around him, and several keys littered the ground.

As the Raicho began another dive towards him, the rest of his keys snapped up around him, unlocking the rest of his chains and leaving only the large lock around his neck remaining. He manually unlocked this with a large key and let the chains slip from his body silently, coiling neatly on the ground. She recognized the last key he had used to be one of her keys.

'So that's where he went, to my house so he could steal the keys…'

Raicho brought his wings whirring up, hovering above Kagi as he removed his Akatsuki robes, revealing a tight, back outfit. He suddenly began screaming, but it quickly turned into screeches as two black wings broke from his shoulders.

'**This is bad… He has my brother sealed in him… I can't defeat that kind of power!**'

Rikou was astonished at the note of panic in Raicho's voice. She soon found herself looking down at a replica of the Raicho, except with white, pupiless eyes. It was disturbing.

Rikou watched in horror as the bird below suddenly shot up, locking talons with its brother and spinning earthwards. The Raicho managed to break free a moment before hitting the ground, landing properly on both feet. The other bird was fast though, it was already pitching forwards into another dive, and the Raicho was caught off guard.

**'Rikou, I need your help.'**

'What can I do? We're both going to die here because of you.'

The demon ignored her comment and went on. **'I cannot form the seals needed to trap my brother away again. If I let you out, you have to do this.'**

'Why should I?' Rikou's eyes fell on Ken, who was panting heavily as he watched the demons raging battle. Pain shot through her chest as the Raicho was blasted backwards.

**'Because if you don't, you'll die, your boyfriend will die, the village will be destroyed and everything you ever knew of will go with it.'**

Realization hit Rikou as she watched the dead world disappear, to be replaced by her own world, snow falling heavily. When she looked around, they were no longer on the border of the village, but instead directly in the middle with about two hundred shinobi surrounding them. The houses and other buildings around them had been demolished completely, debris flying everywhere.

She cringed in pain, her hand flying to her right shoulder and coming away wet with warm blood. She looked to where one of the Jounin had managed to hit the Raicho with a few exploding notes.

'Why are they attacking me!?'

'**Rikou! Listen! You have to use your body and seal him within you. If you don't, it'll be hell on earth**.'

'…Fine… But, I don't know how to seal him.'

'**Okay, look… I'll let you take control of your own body again and tell you which seals to perform. I'll fly up, and leave one of my feathers behind. Use that to seal him, but do it before the feather hits the ground. Alright?**'

'Sure. I don't get it, but I'll try. Now let me out.'

There was no hesitation as the Raicho summoned the rest of his strength and shot up into the air with unimaginable speed, his burned and broken wings pumping hard and raising him hundreds of feet into the air. As he pushed off the ground, he blasted the other demon back, knocking the air from him and momentarily immobilizing him.

Rikou felt her senses suddenly return, and a moment later, she felt air and ice whipping across her face as she plunged earthwards. From her current height, the other demon crow was a small speck. Her body seemed weightless, and as she looked up slightly, she saw a single, ebony black feather drifting down at the same speed as her.

**Rikou, you have to start now or else we'll both be killed. Are you ready?**

"As ready as I'll ever be," she muttered, bringing her hands into a seal.


	22. 22

**_Dog, dragon, boar, bird, tiger, monkey, hare, serpent, rat, ox, horse, ram, bird, dragon, dog, boar, hare, rat, rat, serpent…_**

"Inu, Ryuu, Ino, Tori, Tora, Saru, Usagi, Hebi, Nezu, Oushi, Uma, Hitsuji, Tori, Ryuu, Inu, Ino, Usagi, Nezu, Nezu, Hebi…"

Rikou began falling faster, but that wasn't the bad part. A moment later, the crow demon hundreds of feet below noticed her and regained his senses, spreading its wings and darting upwards. Rikou noticed the hundreds of dead shinobi around this part of the village, the snow stained red.

Her hands flew into seal after seal, her frozen fingers being forced to comply with her as the wind whipped across her face. She was now falling at a normal speed, and the dark feather beside her had somehow sped up, darting down along with her. She felt no fear of death, which was strange, since she was staring it right in the eyes.

**_Rat, dragon, bird, tiger, tiger, serpent, boar, dog, horse, dog, monkey, rat, ram, ox, ox, tiger…._**

"Nezu, Ryuu, Tori, Tora, Tora, Hebi, Ino, Inu, Uma, Inu, Saru, Nezu, Hitsuji, Oushi, Oushi, Tora…"

Her heart began to speed up as she looked into the blank eyes of the demon crow looking up at her with killing intent, It knew what she was doing. Her hands began to fly faster and faster and it took her total concentration to keep up the string. One mistake would mean her life and everyone else's.

Her skin began to burn, every inch of it feeling as if it was on fire. The skin on her bare arms began to blister, peeling away as if it were covered in invisible fire. Rikou ignored the new pain and continued forming the seals, the demon crow growing dangerously close.

**_Take out a kunai and cut open your hands._**

Rikou did as she was told, digging the dagger deep into her palms and casting it away, letting the warm liquid fly into her face and sting her eyes.

**_Hold the feather to your chest with your left had and place your right hand forwards toward my brother. Hurry._**

Rikou did this quickly, the demon less than a hundred feet below her. She grabbed the feather from the air, badly burning her hand in the process. She place the feather to her chest and threw out her right hand towards the demon.

**_Repeat after me: Menuri Itashikata: On wo ada de kaesu Anoyo._**

"Menuri Itashikata: On wo ada de kaesu Anoyo!"

Symbols exploded from her hand, and as the crow tried to pull away, they encircled it completely, white markings burning across its feathers. She landed on the demon's neck as it fell earthwards, taking her with it.

The crow demon screeched as it began melting into her body, flying into her stomach painfully. She gasped at the fresh pain, but it ended quickly. A moment later, tears streaming down her face, she threw her hands out, releasing chakra to stop her fall. It exploded from her arms, burning them further and creating a crater before her.

She hit the ground hard, but the chakra broke her fall. She felt some of her ribs snap on impact along with her left arm, but she could still breathe. As the chakra faded away, she twitched, pushing herself up… only to find herself looking into the angry face of Kagi.

Before she could react, his foot connected with her jaw, sending her flying backwards. He was there in an instant, placing a foot on her chest and leaning forwards. He was holding her ninja-to in his hands, and he raised it. But something darted between him and her, knocking him back.

Rikou's eyes focused on Ken, who had the Gurehane running completely through the last Akatsuki's stomach. Kagi dropped the ninja-to, grabbing onto the blade. Ken released whatever chakra he had left, sending inside of Kagi's body and destroying him from the inside. He sried out with his last breath, eyes wide, but they soon went blank.

Blood dripped from his mouth, splashing into the snow as Ken pulled out the sword, letting the body fall to the ground. Kagi's handsome face was pale and strained in pain. His glossy, black hair fell about it as he coughed once more, blood dripping into the snow, before he stopped moving.

Rikou pushed herself up shakily, forcing her torn muscles to move so she could face Ken. He smiled and took a step forwards, but she gave him a look that said to keep away. She lifted her head and looked him in the eye, and more Jounin joined him, facing her.

"Rikou, you have to-"

"Kill me now."

There was complete silence as Ken staggered a few feet back at the blunt request. The other Jounin and Chuunin around her looked on in silence.

"Wh-What?"

"Kill me."

"Why?"

"If I cannot live a normal life with one demon within me, how can I possibly survive with two? I cannot control it, I am a threat to the village."

"I couldn't do that."

Rikou's shoulders slumped forwards suddenly, but Ken was there instantly, catching her before she hit the ground. She closed her eyes in an effort to deal with the fresh pain of two demons quarreling in the back of her mind. It buzzed annoyingly, but eventually stopped. She opened her mouth to say something to Ken, but the world suddenly warped and went black, and she found herself floating through darkness again. But this darkness was not the same as it had been before. There was a deep burning within her mind, flashes of light caused by the quarreling demons. She knew her mind would never be calm again. It was simply impossible now. She would never be able to live normally. Ever.

* * *

_A/N: HA! In your face you stupid fic! Eh, what a lame ending. Why is it that when I write something, I can do the entire fic fairly well, but when it comes to closing it off it gets messy and confusing? ARGH! So frustrating. But I have no incentive to properly finish this fic off, so that's that. If this isn't the last chap, then the only other thing will be an epilogue or something. BTW, for anyone who cares in the slightest, I finally made a FictionPress account for all my non-fanfic stuff, under the pen name Chirakka (heh, you can find me on anything by looking up that name- don't ask where it came from, kind of an inside joke)_


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